Militants behind grenade attack on policemen killed
RETALIATION Forces gun down two Hizbul Mujahideen militants responsible for injuring four cops in Wednesday’s strike in Sopore
Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants responsible for a grenade attack on policemen in Sopore town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Wednesday evening were killed in an encounter with security forces early on Thursday, police said.
At least four policemen were injured when a suspected militant lobbed a grenade outside a police station in Sopore.
Director general of state police SP Vaid tweeted that the two militants were killed in a joint operation at Sopore.
Vaid told the Hindustan Times the grenade thrower was identified from close circuit television camera footage and the description provided by the policemen who were attacked.
“He was picked up and interrogated and then he led us to the terrorists,” Vaid said.
The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state police were involved in the operation that took place at Natipora area of Sopore.
Security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation (CASO) in Natipora at around 3:30am after receiving information about the presence of militants there, a police official said told PTI news agency. During the searches, the two militants opened fire on the forces, triggering the gunbattle, he said.
An army official said two AK assault rifles and other warlike stores were recovered in the sanitisation operation.
The incident comes days Sabzar Ahmed Bhat, who succeeded Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani, was killed by security forces in south Kashmir’s Tral region. The 27-yearold Bhat, believed to be the successor of slain Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, was gunned down at a hideout in Tral.
security forces have built up a lot of pressure on insurgents in the past few weeks in Jammu and Kashmir and the results are visible on a daily basis, Union defence minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, the minister dismissed reports of mounting unrest and public anger in the Valley and said that the situation on the ground was mostly normal.
“...The situation is challenging in some pockets of south Kashmir but normal in Srinagar,” he said.
The army has gunned down a number of militants in the past few weeks, including top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat last week, but has been unable to tamp down on local anger. Thousands showed up at the funeral of Bhat on Sunday. A series of ceasefire violations has also rocked the Line of Control.
“In the past few weeks, our armed forces that is the Indian army and BSF are dominating the line of control.”
The minister also hit out at Pakistan for scuttling chances of a dialogue. “The government of India has taken significant steps to ease the situations in past…each was responded by say, a Pathankot, Uri or mutilation of soldiers,” he said, referring to attacks on army bases allegedly carried out by militants based in Pakistan.
FORCES WERE CARRYING A CORDONANDSEARCH OPERATION WHEN
THE MILITANTS OPENED FIRE ON THEM, WHICH LED TO THE GUNBATTLE