Two grenade attacks on Dy SPs in Sopore; none injured
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR: With the infiltration of militants picking up and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba sending well-trained and indoctrinated cadres for fresh spell of turbulence in Kashmir valley, six Pakistani militants were killed by security forces on Thursday in two gunbattles in Kupwara district.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gilani told STATE TIMES that two encounters took place in Dobwan Khurhama (Lolab) and Waterkhani Drugmulla between militants and security forces. Three each militants got killed in both the gunbattles. He said that no collateral damage was reported. IGP said that all the six militants were believed to be Pakistani cadres of LeT even as the identification process was still underway.
Bodies of all the six militants have been recovered, handed over to local Auqaf committees and buried in two different localities.
Informed sources said that the three unidentified militants killed in the encounter with troops of Rashtriya Rifles 18th Bn at Dobwan, near Khurhama, in Lolab were believed to be members of a group that had reportedly infiltrated into the Valley earlier this month. Sources said that the three militants killed in Waterkhani Drugmulla in an encounter with troops of Rashtriya Rifles 47 th Bn were believed to be members of the same group which had lost one militant in an encounter with troops of RR 56 Bn on June 14. Other members of the group had escaped and killed a soldier in the gunfight on June 15.
On Monday, troops arrested a Pakistani militant of LeT, identified as Abu Ukasha alias Hanzalla, in Sogam township of Kupwara while he was purchasing some groceries at a shop. It is believed that his sustained interrogation led Army to his group’s hideout in Waterkhani forest area where a fierce gunfight started in the afternoon on Thursday. Even as three militants have been killed, troops are carrying on a combing operation. Sources said that six AK-47 rifles and other arms and ammunition have been seized.
Reports said that some people in Drugmulla area staged a protest demonstration after they saw troops dragging the bodies of the three slain militants.
Meanwhile, a senior Police officer told STATE TIMES that unidentified militants lobbed a hand grenade on a Police party led by SDPO Sopore Ashish Mishra at Amargarh in outskirts of Sopore at 5.20 p.m. The targeted vehicle suffered some damage but nobody was dead or injured. He said that at 6.20 p.m. militants hurled another grenade on a Police party headed by Dy SP of SOG Sopore Showkat Ahmad at Seelu, 8 Km from Sopore on Sopore-Kupwara road. Again the targeted vehicle suffered minor damage and nobody was dead or injured.
No militant outfit claimed responsibility pf the grenade attacks in Sopore till late in the night.
