E-Paper
Sopore encounter: Two army men, one militant killed
One militant and two Army jawans were today killed in a gunfight between militants and security forces in Sopore town of north Kashmir. At least five militants are still holed up and heavy gunbattle is on.
One militant and two Army jawans were today killed in a gunfight between militants and security forces in Sopore town of north Kashmir. At least five militants are still holed up and heavy gunbattle is on.
This is the 15th encounter in Sopore since January 1, 2010.
The gun-battle broke around 7 in the morning when a search party entered a house in Chinkipora village in Sopore about 55 kms from Srinagar. According to the police, party was fired upon killing two soldier and injuring three other jawans.
The jawans were seriously injured when militants opened indiscriminate fire on the joint search party of army and police.
"We cordoned the house after specific inputs about presence of militants. The moment we reached there we were fired upon and grenades were hurled in which we lost one jawan and two others recieved were injured,'' said Altaf Khan, superintendent of police in the area.
According to him evacuation of the civilians was on. "We have not been able to evacuvate all the civilians as it is a heavily buildup area and the militants are firing indiscriminately,'' he added.
Two militants including top Lashkar commander is believed to be holed up in the house. He reportedly gave police a slip in another village Warpora in the same area. Even after two days of massive combing operations the police was unable to trap the militants.
The exchange of fire between the two sides was going on when reports last came in.
