2 foreign militants killed in Handwara gunfight

SRINAGAR/LUCKNOW: Two foreign militants were killed in a brief encounter with security forces in north Kashmir’s Handwara on Sunday, police said.

Officials said that a joint party of police and army’s 21 Rashtriya Rifles launched a search operation in Waripora village of Handwara, some 75 km from Srinagar after a tip off.

Police control room Handwara said that the militants who were cornered in an orchard, just meters away from the populated area in Waripora, opened fire on the security forces who then retaliated.

“Two militants were killed in the operation,” said Ghulam Jeelani, superintendent of police, Handwara.

Jeelani said that they were lucky to trap the militants 100 meters away from the village which prevented any chances of untoward incidents among the villagers. “Both the militants are foreigners. We are trying to ascertain their identity. Since Lashkar-e-Taiba is active in the region, we suspect the militants are from the same outfit,” he said.

Earlier during the day, a civilian who was wounded during a militant attack on a police party on May 6 in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district succumbed to his injuries at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences. The death toll in that incident has now risen to six.

Earlier on Saturday, the Shashastra Seema Bal (SSB) which guards India-Nepal border spread across Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Bihar nabbed a suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Nasir Ahmad Wani (34) at the Sonauli border in UP’s Maharajganj district.

Wani who was allegedly tasked to recruit members for his terror group, was taken into custody when he entered Indian territory posing as Kashmiri shawl vendor. But his accomplice Safi managed to escape into Nepalese territory.

AN ALLEGED HIZBUL MUJAHIDEEN TERRORIST HAS BEEN ARRESTED BY THE SSB AT SANAULI, ALONG THE NEPAL BORDER, IN UP