Baramulla: 3 Pakistan militants killed; cop also dies

The police said they have “neutralised” a threat to the Amarnath Yatra by killing the militants, who were on way to Srinagar. The police believe one militant escaped during the gunfight.

The police identified the militants killed in the encounter as Ali Bhai, Hanief Bhai and Shah Wali and said three AK-47 rifles, 15 AK-47 magazines, 344 AK-rounds, five Chinese grenades and three IEDs were recovered from the encounter site.

According to police, the militants, travelling in a car, were stopped at a special checkpost, set up on receiving inputs about movement of militants. As the joint team of forces, comprising police and Army personnel, focussed on their car, the militants started firing. The joint team retaliated, leading to a gunfight, the statement said.

A relative reacts during the wreath laying ceremony for policeman Mudasir Ahmad, who was killed in an encounter with militants, in Baramulla. (PTI)

Wednesday’s encounter comes six days after police claimed to have busted a militant module in Baramulla and said that four people had been arrested. According to the police, five pistols were recovered from the arrested militants and their associates, who they said were behind the recent attack on a liquor shop in Baramulla.

While south Kashmir witnesses frequent gunfights between militants and joint forces, such encounters are rare in north Kashmir, which has the presence of foreign militants, who usually take shelter in the area’s dense forests to avoid the security radar, according to sources.