28-hr-long gunfight in Srinagar ends, 2 LeT militants killed

The militants had taken shelter inside the Karan Nagar area building a day ago after an alert sentry at the observation post of the 23rd battalion of the CRPF spotted them and fired.
Security personnel take positions during an encounter with the militants who were sheltering in a building near a CRPF camp at Karra Nagar in Srinagar on Monday. | PTI
Security personnel take positions during an encounter with the militants who were sheltering in a building near a CRPF camp at Karra Nagar in Srinagar on Monday. | PTI

SRINAGAR: The 28-hour-long gunfight between Lashkar-e-Toiba militants and security forces near a CRPF camp in Karan Nagar area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, ended on Tuesday with the killing of both holed-up militants.

A CRPF jawan was also killed and police and paramilitary man injured in the gunfight.

“Both the militants holed up in multi-storey concrete building in Karan Nagar area since yesterday morning were killed in the security forces operations this afternoon,” IGP Kashmir S P Pani told reporters.

He said the slain militants belonged to Lashkar as per the material recovered from them. “We are ascertaining their identity,” he said.

Lashkar had yesterday claimed that militants of outfit were involved in the attack.

Sources said one of the militant was killed in the morning when he tried to come out of the building to get into another building.

“Another militant was killed later inside the building during the clearance operation by the security forces,” they said.

A CRPF man identified as constable Mohammad Mujahid Khan  R/o  Arah, Bihar was killed and policeman injured in the gunfight yesterday while a paramilitary jawan was injured today.

The injured jawans are undergoing treatment.

IGP Pani said the operation took time because due care was taken to prevent collateral damage.

He said two AK-47 assault rifles, eight magazines and other war-like stores were recovered from the encounter site.

The two militants armed with assault rifles and carrying bags had in the wee hours yesterday attempted to barge into the battalion headquarters of CRPF at Karan Nagar area in uptown Srinagar. However, the sentries in the camp had foiled their attempt and fired on them.

The militants had then taken refuge in a nearby under construction multi-storey building and engaged the police and CRPF men in a gunfight at around 10 am when they launched a combing and search operation to flush them out.

IG CRPF Ravideep Singh Sahi said credit goes to the sentries, who prevented the fidayeen from entering the battalion headquarters of CRPF.

“Had the militants barged into the camp, there would have been losses,” he said.

Sahi said the sentries would be suitably rewarded.

He said the jawans and officers of the CRPF are on alert and ready to foil militant attack.

“The condition and the environment in which we are working, we need to be alert and our men are alert 24x7,” IG CRPF said.

Asked whether any militant had escaped during the gunfight, he said, “The sentries had seen only two militants and both have been killed in the gunfight”.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com