3 LeT militants killed in encounter in Pulwama, youth dead in ensuing clash

Three militants -- all of them local youths who had joined the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group -- were killed in the encounter in Kakapora.

Security forces gunned down three local Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants on Thursday in an encounter that lasted for over six hours in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Clashes erupted after the encounter in the area in which a civilian youth was killed.

Indian Army personnel during an operation on the outskirts of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.(HT File Photo)

In a tweet, director general of police S P Vaid said the militants were eliminated in Kakapora of Pulwama and the deceased included Majid Mir, “who was involved in a number of killings”.

The other two were Shakir Ahmad and Irshad Ahmad, sources said.

A civilian youth, identified as Tawseef Hussain Wani, was killed as security forces fired to quell protests near the site of the Kakapora encounter. A senior district health official said Hussain suffered tear shell injury.

The encounter started on Wednesday night after the army, police and CRPF launched a hunt based on an intelligence input that three local boys, who had joined LeT, were hiding in a house in a densely populated locality, a police official said.

The Indian Army’s Northern Command tweeted that they had recovered three weapons from the site.

The Kakapora encounter was the second in the day with two local Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed in north Kashmir’s Sopore in the morning.

Last Friday, a top commander of the LeT in Kashmir, Junaid Mattoo, was gunned down by security forces in an encounter in south Kashmir.