Four militants, including two commanders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed and a soldier was martyred in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. With this, the number of terrorists killed in the Union Territory in the last two weeks has reached 17.
The first encounter was reported at Dragad in Shopian while the second gunfight took place in Kulgam district of south Kashmir. Police said the slain LeT men were involved in the recent killing of migrant labourers in the Union Territory.
"Police and army neutralised LeT district commander Gulzar Ahmad Reshi of Kulgam and one other, who were involved in the killings of two poor labourers from Bihar on 17/10/21 at Wanpoh," IGP Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.
Police and army launched a joint operation in Kulgam in the evening after they received information about the movement of two terrorists along the Ashmuji-Devsar road.
"The area was cordoned off and contact established at about 07.40 PM. Repeated surrender appeals were turned down by terrorists," said a defence spokesperson. An AK rifle and other warlike stores have been recovered from the ultras, he said.
Earlier in the day, two terrorists were eliminated at Dragad in Shopian where a search operation launched by the forces turned into an encounter after militants opened fire on them. One soldier lost his life while two others sustained injuries.
Officials said the two slain terrorists were members of The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"One of the killed terrorists has been identified as Adil Ah Wani, active since 7/2020. So far, 15 terrorists have been neutralised in 2 weeks," police said.
According to reports, Wani was involved in the murder of a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur recently.
Meanwhile, the massive search operation against holed-up terrorists continued for the tenth day on Wednesday in the dense forests of Poonch and Rajouri districts, where nine army personnel were killed in two separate attacks last week, officials said.
However, there was no contact with the terrorists as the joint search parties of the army and special operations group of local police moved cautiously in the dense forests of Mendhar and Surankote in Poonch and Thanamandi in Rajouri, clearing a vast area during the day, they said.
With inputs from PTI
