Rajouri, Apr 1: The toll in the Rajouri gunfights mounted to 18 with the killing of six more militants in a fresh encounter on Thursday, police said.
“Seven militants and five troopers were killed in separate gunfights in this frontier district till yesterday,” a police official told Greater Kashmir.
Giving details of today’s encounter he said, “Troopers of 60 Rashtriya Rifles assisted by police launched searches at the Khabbar top forest area in Kalakote this afternoon. Militants present there opened fire on the search party which was retaliated triggering an encounter.”
“In the ensuing gunfight,” he said, six more militants were killed Thursday.
He said killed militants, 3-days ago, had escaped from Triyath forest after a brief encounter in which a trooper had been killed and Station House Officer (SHO) of Daramshal Police Station, Showkat Ali was injured.
“This was the same group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, who had infiltrated from Pallanwala belt of Akhnoor sector on March 23. Two militants of this group were killed in Dharamshal area on Saturday last while four militants and were killed yesterday in Kandi Bhudal belt of Rajouri district,” he added.
Sources said that two more gunfights were on in Kandi and Dharamsal areas of Rajouri district.

VDC MEMBER REPULSES ATTACK
Meanwhile, police claimed that Village Defence Committee (VDC) member repulsed a militant attack on his house in Rajouri district this morning.
“A group of militants attacked the house of Raj Kumar in village Daroti. When Kumar did not open the door, the militants resorted to indiscriminate firing   which was retaliated by the VDC member. The intermittent exchange of fire continued for about an hour. Militants later escaped,” a police official added.

ARMS, AMMUNITION RECOVERED IN CITY
Police today claimed that it recovered huge cache of arms and explosives from Srinagar city.
“Police raided Chinar Bagh in the close vicinity of high security MLA hostel and seized a pistol, two magazines, 16 rounds of ammunitions, a silencer, four Chinese hand grenades, a rifle grenade thrower with five grenades,” a police official said.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST