3 militants ‘killed’ in encounter in south Kashmir’s Tral

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Three militants were killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday, a senior police officer said.

A police official said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire on security forces. (ANI/Twitter)

According to officials, the militants were planning a major attack on army and police.

The encounter began at around 8.30 on Saturday after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants opened fire on security forces conducting a search in Satoora forest area of Tral.

“Since the last two-three days, we had information that this group of militants were planning an attack on army and police,” Muneer Khan, inspector general of police, Kashmir Range told HT earlier during the day.

“Pursuing them, we finally established contact today (Saturday) morning,” he said.

The identity of deceased militants is yet to be ascertained.

Tral, which is 36 km from Srinagar, is the hometown of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen ultra who was gunned down by security forces on July 8 last year triggering a wave of unrest in the Valley for nearly a year.