Srinagar: In a fierce encounter in Pulwama district of Kashmir, security forces today gunned down 2 Pakistan-supported terrorists, with the police saying they were the killers of a minority Kashmiri Pandit community member in the same district two days back.
An Army man was also killed and another soldier injured in the 12-hour gunbattle in Padgampora village of Awantipora area in Pulwama district, police said.
The terrorists were hiding in a mosque, because of which extreme care had to be exercised by the security forces to ensure the sanctity of the shrine was not affected, the police said.
At least 14 civilians were evacuated safely by the security forces from the encounter zone amidst intense firing by the terrorists.
The gunfight erupted around midnight when a joint team of police, army and CRPF laid a cordon and launched a search for the terrorists, following a specific input about their presence there.
“During the search, terrorists hiding inside a mosque opened indiscriminate fire upon search parties and in this initial exchange of fire, two jawans of Army sustained grievous injuries while neutralizing one terrorist on spot,” said a police spokesman.
“One of the jawans later on attained martyrdom,” he added.
Meanwhile, another terrorist shifted to an adjacent building and he was neutralised there, but not before 14 civilians were evacuated from the danger zone.
Police identified the two slain terrorists as Aqib Mushtaq Bhat of Malangpora, Pulwama, and Aijaz Ahmad Bhat of Syedabad Pastuna, Tral.
“They were involved in the recent killing of Kashmir Pandit (Sanjay Sharma) at Achan, Pulwama,” a police spokesman said about the incident that took place two days back.
Also read: Kashmiri Pandit killed by Pakistan-backed terrorists
The two terrorists were also involved in an attack on two labourers from outside Jammu and Kashmir at Lajoora, Pulwama, last year, the spokesman said.
“Investigation so far revealed that both the terrorists, although joined through different terrorist organisations, had come together to conspire and attack minorities, outsiders, other vulnerable targets and security forces,” police spokesman said.
Police said Aqib Bhat was a categorized terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen and for the past few months was working with the so-called “The Resistance Front” (TRF), a shadowy frontal outfit of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Aijaz Bhat was associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad and also worked in coordination with TRF.
Two AK series rifles, a pistol, three grenades, five AK magazines, two pistol magazines, 103 AK rounds, 20 pistol rounds were recovered from the site of encounter, the police said.
