3 terrorists killed in gunbattle in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian: Police

The identity and group affiliation of the terrorists killed in the Shopian gunfight are yet to be ascertained.

Two terrorists were killed in an overnight encounter by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian town, the police said on Sunday morning. This took the number of terrorists killed in the encounter to three. One terrorist was gunned down on Saturday night.

Security forces personnel leave after an encounter with militants at Sagoo in Shopian district of south Kashmir. (PTI File Photo/Representative Image )

“Police & security forces made sincere efforts to take surrender of newly recruited #terrorist. Parents also made appeals but other terrorists didn’t allow him to #surrender,” the police said in a tweet on Sunday morning.

According to police officials quoted by news agency PTI, they launched a search operation in Hadipora area of the south Kashmir district based on specific information about the presence of terrorists. When the forces were conducting the search, terrorists fire upon them, a police official told PTI. The forces retaliated, after which the encounter began, the official said.

The identity and group affiliation of the terrorists killed in the gunfight are yet to be ascertained. An AK-47 and a pistol has been recovered, an army spokesperson said, adding that the joint operation is still in progress.

Earlier this week, as many as seven terrorists, including terror outfit Ansar Ghazwatul Hind chief Imtiaz Ahmad Shah, were killed in two encounters in the union territory’s Shopian and Pulwama districts, police said on Friday.

In the Shopian gunfight that continued for more than 12 hours since Thursday evening, security forces were engaged in a fierce battle with terrorists hiding and firing from inside a mosque.

As the tension built up over the hours between Thursday night and Friday afternoon, the loudspeaker rang out intermittently with appeals from the parents of the terrorists holed up inside the Jama Masjid, citizens and Army personnel, PTI reported. Groups of people were also sent inside to negotiate with the men to come out peacefully, officials were quoted as saying by the agency.

"Our main concern was to preserve the sanctity of the masjid while neutralising the terrorists. This exposed our troops to high degree of risk while engaging with the terrorists, who were heavily armed," Major General Rashim Bali, General officer in Command of Victor Force that looks after militancy in South and central Kashmir told PTI.

(With agency inputs)