Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Three terrorists were killed in an ongoing encounter that broke out early this morning in Amshipora village of South Kashmir’s Shopian district, police officials said.
An official said that acting on a tip-off, joint teams of Police, Army and the CRPF launched a search operation in village Amshipora, Shopian at 5 am today. “When the joint teams of forces zeroed in on the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists opened indiscriminate fire at the forces, triggering a fierce encounter,” he said.
He also said that in the initial exchange of fire, two terrorists were killed and one more was shot dead at 9 am. “However, forces continue to see gunfire coming from the house, which indicates presence of one or two more terrorists. So far, three terrorists have been killed,” the officer said.
In addition, Kashmir zone police on its Twitter handle wrote, “Three terrorists killed so far, operation on.”
Defence spokesman in Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said that, three terrorists have been killed in Amshipora, Shopian encounter. “Joint operation is on,” he said. Authorities in Shopian district have snapped the internet services as a precautionary measure to prevent law and order situation.
Today’s encounter is second in South Kashmir in the past 24 hours. Last morning, security forces killed three Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists including a top commander and the IED expert of the outfit- Waleed Bhai at Nagnad village of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Waleed was a Pakistani national and had expertise in using the US-made M-4 Carbine.
Notably, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a crucial security review meeting in Srinagar last evening, and asked the heads of various security agencies to “clean Kashmir from remaining terrorists and to plug infiltration on the Line of Control.”
This year so far, 145 terrorists have been killed in a series of anti-militancy operations that include top commanders of Hizbul Muajhideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit. Hizb has borne the maximum brunt as the outfit has lost 60 terrorists alone including its chief operational commander Reyaz Naikoo.
However, official figures suggest that since June 1, 55 terrorists were killed in various counter-insurgency operations across South Kashmir alone.
-RJV
