SRI NAGAR: An army man and a Special Police Officer (SPO) of J&K police were killed in an encounter with militants in Khrew area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Tuesday.
Both the army personnel succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
The deceased were identified as Sepoy Rahul Rainswal of 50 RR and SPO Shahbaz Chowdary of Manjkote, Rajouri.
Meanwhile, at least seven militants including two top commanders have been killed in anti-militancy operations following the arrest of DSP Davinder Singh and Hizbul commander Naveed Babu.
A day after arrest of Singh and Naveed Babu from a vehicle in Wanpoh area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, the CRPF and the Army in a joint operation killed three Hizb militants including its top commander Hamaad Khan in an intelligence-based operation in Tral area of Pulwama district on January 12.
On the same day, security forces busted two militant hide-outs in south Kashmir including 8-ft underground hide-out of Hizb in an orchard in village Urpora of Shopian.
Although militants managed to escape from the hide-outs, security forces recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition from the two places, J&K police chief Dilbag Singh said.
The next day (January 13), another Hizb militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Behrampura area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
On the same day, police arrested militant associate Tariq Ahmad Ganai from Gund in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
Tariq, according to police, was assisting active Lashkar-e-Toiba militants.Two days later, police arrested another militant associate Jehangir Ahmad Parray from Gulshan, Tral.
Raids conducted at detention centre
The police on Monday night conducted searches at MLA hostel in Srinagar, where over three dozen detained mainstream leaders are lodged, including PC chairman and former BJP ally Sajjad Lone, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra and Sartaj Madni of PDP.
The search operation, they said, lasted for about an hour. MLA hostel has been turned into a subsidiary jail to accommodate over three dozen mainstream leaders.