3 more TRF militants killed in J&K gunfight

Srinagar: Hours after the killing of chief and deputy chief of TRF by J&K police’s counterinsurgency wing in capital Srinagar, three more members of the militant outfit were gunned down by the security forces during an operation in the Valley’s Sopore town early Tuesday.

Hours after the killing of chief and deputy chief of The Resistance Front (TRF) by Jammu and Kashmir police’s counterinsurgency wing in capital Srinagar, three more members of the militant outfit were gunned down by the security forces during an operation in the Valley’s Sopore town early on Tuesday.

The police and Army officials said that a gunfight broke out between a group of TRF militants and security forces in Sopore’s Peth Seer area late Monday night and ended with the killing of three of them on Tuesday. The operation was carried out jointly by the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), the Army’s 52 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) ‘s 177 and 179 battalions on ‘specific input generated by the police” about the presence of militants at Peth Seer, 51-km northwest of Srinagar.

The slain militants have been identified as Faisal Fayaz Thokar, Ghulam Mustafa Sheikh and Rameez Ahmed Ghanie-all local Kashmiris. The police in a statement here said that late Monday night the operation was suspended “due to darkness” but the cordon around the area remained intact throughout the night. It said that before the fighting resumed on Tuesday morning, repeated announcements were again made, asking the holed-up militants to surrender which they ignored.