2 killed, 2 hurt in J& K encounter
Militants escape; Army, police launch manhunt
A group of heavily armed militants killed an Army jawan and a special police officer and injured another soldier and a civilian in a “fierce” encounter in the Kashmir Valley’s Baramulla district early on Thursday. The group is reported to have given the security forces the slip.
Army and police reinforcements have launched a massive manhunt for the two militants, who are believed to have escaped into the woods close to the encounter site in Baramulla’s Kunzar.
A statement issued by the police here, however, said: “The militants managed to escape and the search operation has been called off.” Contradicting it, the Army said the pursuit was still on and the operation was still underway. “The search of the ( private) house where contact had earlier been established revealed that the terrorists had managed to run away from there. They were tracked by pressing dogs into service. Pursuit is still on and the operation is still in progress, though at a new location,” said Army spokesman Colonel Brijesh Pandey.
Both the police and the Army had earlier on Thursday said a firefight was raging at Hardashura, a remote village, after a joint operation was launched by the Army’s 29 Rashtriya Rifles, the J& K police’s counter- insurgency Special Operations Group ( SOG) and the CRPF’s 176 Battalion. They were acting on specific information about the presence of militants there.
“The joint operation was launched at 7.30 am following specific intelligence and contact with terrorists was established at 7.50 am. The operation is in progress and, so far, one of our boys and one SOG jawan, who were critically injured, have succumbed,” said Col. Pandey earlier. Another Army jawan and a civilian were injured, reports said.
The latest reports from the encounter site say the fighting has stopped but there is no trace of the militants, believed to be two in number.
It is also believed they might have escaped into the nearby woods. Reports from Hardashura also said Army and SOG reinforcements had launched a massive manhunt in nearby areas. A house- to- house search was underway in Hardashura when reports last came in.
Meanwhile, a police statement here said that acting on specific information, Baramulla police, 29 Rashtriya Rifles and 176 Battalion of the CRPF launched a cordon- andsearch operation in Hardashura, Sultanpora, in the jurisdiction of police station Kunzar ( Baramulla), on Thursday morning.