SRINAGAR: Hours after India-Pakistan NSA-level talks were cancelled by the neighbouring country, security forces killed three suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in border district of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
“Acting on specific intelligence inputs about presence of militants in village Krumhura near Rainwari forest of Handwara in border district of Kupwara, a joint combing and search operation was launched by Army’s counter insurgency Rashtriya Rifles and police,” defence spokesman in Srinagar Colonel N N Joshi told Express.
He said as the siege was tightened, the militants hiding in the area opened heavy volume of fire towards search party last evening.
“The fire was returned by the security men and the exchange of fire between the two sides continued till early this morning,” Joshi said adding in the ensuing firefight three militants were killed.
An army officer and a jawan were injured in the encounter and have been evacuated to army hospital for specialized treatment.
Joshi said bodies of the militants have been recovered from the encounter site. “We have handed over the bodies to police for their identification,” he said.
He said three AK-47 rifles, 14 Magazines and large quantity of AK-47 ammunition, six UBGLs Grenades, four Chinese Grenades, two Maps, three Radio Sets, two Rucksacks were recovered from the deceased militants.
Joshi said combing and search operations in the area continued for some time to ensure that none of the militants had escaped from the area during the course of gunfight.
Another army official said that the dead militants appeared to be foreign nationals.
“According to preliminary investigations, it seems that the deceased militants were Pakistani nationals and belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba,” he said.
The official said further investigations are going on.