Three militants, including one involved in the killing of BSF troopers, were killed on Sunday, 21 June, in a gunfight between holed up militants and the security forces in J&K’s Srinagar city after several attempts to make them surrender failed.
Kashmir Zone Police took to their Twitter account to say that the third militant had been killed but the search operation is still underway.
IGP (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar told reporters that the security forces tried their best to persuade the holed up militants to surrender.
“Since they were local terrorists, we asked some prominent people to appeal to the three terrorists to surrender but they did not budge and threw a hand grenade instead and were killed in the ensuing gun battle,” he told ANI.
Two of the three militants have been identified as Shakoor Farooq Langoo of Bharthana, Srinagar and Shahid Ahmad Bhat of Semthan Bijbehara, the police said. The identity of the third one is yet to be ascertained.
“All of them were affiliated with proscribed terror outfit HM/ISJK,” the police said, ANI reported.
“Even their parents were brought in to persuade the holed up militants to surrender, but they refused,” the IGP said, according to IANS.
He added that one of the holed up militants was involved in the killings of two BSF troopers in Pandach area of Srinagar last month.
“Two of them are active since 2019. One was involved in attack on two BSF (Border Security Force) jawans last month,” Kumar said, according to news agency ANI.
Security forces had surrounded the area for a cordon and search (CASO) operation following information that a group of militants was hiding there. As the cordon was tightened around their hideout, the militants fired triggering an encounter, IANS reported.
Authorities suspended mobile Internet services and imposed restrictions in the city to maintain law and order.
(With inputs from ANI and IANS.)
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