Two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed on Tuesday, the second day of an encounter with security forces near a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force in Srinagar, Director General of Police SP Vaid said. The gunfight has ended and “a combing operation is on,” Greater Kashmir quoted an official as saying. Kashmir Inspector-General of Police SP Pani told reporters that the security forces had recovered arms and ammunition.
“While one was gunned down as he came out of the under construction building to get into another adjacent building, the other was trapped and killed inside the building that they took refuge in on Monday,” the Hindustan Times quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.
A constable of the paramilitary force had died and a policeman was injured in the gunfight on Monday. A CRPF jawan injured during Tuesday’s operation is “completely out of danger”, Pani added.
Security forces had launched their final assault on the terrorists on Tuesday morning. The Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group had claimed that its militants were involved in the encounter. “We are operating cautiously to avoid any collateral damage to citizens and property,” CRPF Inspector General Zulfiqar Hasan had told ANI.
Before dawn on Monday, a sentry at the camp had noticed two armed men try to enter, but after he opened fire and foiled their attempt, they went inside an abandoned building nearby. Security forces then launched a search operation.
All roads leading to the locality were sealed and intermittent exchanges of fire were reported. The local administration has suspended 3G and 4G services in Srinagar.
The CRPF camp is located very close to Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant killed a policeman and escaped custody on February 6. The attack came two days after suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed militants attacked the Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu.
Another attack foiled in Jammu
Meanwhile, security forces began a search operation on Tuesday morning in Jammu’s Raipur Domana area after Army personnel foiled a suspected militant attack at their camp, PTI reported. The militants fled, Army Spokesperson Devender Anand was quoted as saying.
Two militants are believed to have approached the main gate of the camp around 4.30 am and fired at the sentry post, after which the operation began, a senior police officer said.
“An investigation has started and a search operation is under way to track down the fleeing terrorists,” the official told PTI, adding that an alert has been sounded in the area.
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