SRINAGAR: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, including a Pakistani commander identified as Haider, were killed in one of the fiercest encounters this year in Handwara forest area in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Sunday.
Five security personnel, including a decorated commanding officer and a major of the Indian Army, were killed. The deceased include Commanding Officer of 21 Rashtriya Rifles Colonel Ashutosh Sharma (45), Major Anuj Sood (31), Naik Rajesh Kumar (30), Lance Naik Dinesh Singh (25), and Sub Inspector of J&K Police Sageer Ahmad Pathan (42), who had won two gallantry awards for anti-militancy operations.
According to J&K police, following inputs on the presence of LeT militants, a joint team of the Army and J&K Police launched a ‘cordon and search’ operation in Chanjmulla village. The militants had taken refuge in a house, holding civilians as hostages.