SRINAGAR: Four terrorists belonging to the Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), two of them postgraduates, were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
A joint contingent of police, CRPF and Army had laid siege around Panzar area of Shopian in south Kashmir in the early hours, after they received inputs that a group of terrorists whose ideology was similar to that of the Islamic State was hiding in the area.
As the security personnel started house-to-house searches, they came under heavy fire from terrorists hiding in an apple orchard in the area.
The fire was returned by the troops and in the ensuing gunfight, which continued for nearly four hours, four AGH terrorists were killed.
Clashes broke out between local youth and security personnel after the former marched towards the encounter site and pelted stones at the forces.
The deceased were identified as Rafi Hassan Mir, Suhail Ahmad Bhat, Showkat Ahmad Mir and Azad Ahmad Khanday, all locals.
A police official said Showkat had joined militancy in 2015 and was initially part of the Hizbul Mujahideen, but had left the outfit to join the AGH under Zakir Musa, who was killed last month. Rafi and Suhail had joined the terror outfit recently.
While Rafi was a postgraduate in arts, Suhail had done postgraduation in business administration and management from a Chandigarh-based university.