Militant rises from Sopore debris,kills jawan before being shot dead

Bodies of two militants have been recovered and police believe that another two are buried in the rubble. Though police are sure that four militants,including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen’s Kashmir chief Nouman,have died in the encounter,there is no confirmation yet.

Police sources said the other three militants believed killed are Salahuddin,Maviya and local militant Touseef alias Cepa. There is no word on the fate of another top Harkat militant Basharat Saleem,a Sopore resident. Police said the two bodies recovered today didn’t match with Nouman’s picture in their records.

This standoff,which began in the early hours of Tuesday,and the level of training of militants,their understanding of military tactics,motivation have surprised security agencies who think it all points to a shift in militant strategy. The militants are not following their earlier strategy of digging in for a long standoff and battling till death.

What they are now trying to do is attempt to break the security cordon at the very beginning. There have been five encounters recently where the militants have escaped as soon as the first security cordon has been laid. And the manner in which the militants took on the first assault party of the para commandos yesterday also suggests that they had possibly laid a trap.

In New Delhi,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram,speaking at the NDTV Indian of the Year Awards function,said the militants at Sopore were “very determined and hardened guys… we are up against a very determined adversary.”

He said the security forces were still looking for two more bodies “but they could still be alive under the debris… this enemy is no different from the Taliban or al-Qaeda.”