Two militants were killed and a soldier sustained injuries in a gunfight here in north Kashmir on Saturday, police said.
A police official said that a joint team of Army’s 22 RR,J&K Police, and 179 battalion of Central Reserve Police Force launchedsearch operation at MalamapanporaWarpora area in Sopore this morning. “A brief exchange of firingtook place between security forces and militants after a contact wasestablished with the militants,” he added.
Senior Superintendentof Police (SSP) Javid Iqbal said that during the initial firing one militantwas killed and an Army soldier sustained bullet injury. “After a brief pause in firing, contact wasagain established with the militant. During course of firing another militantwas killed,” the SSP said.
He identified the slain militant was identified as Umar ShabazWani son of Shabaz Ahmad Waniof KharporaBandipora and the second one was probably a Pakistani, both slainmilitants belonged to a Jaish-e- Muhammad militant outfit.
Late in the evening in a statement a police spokesmanidentified the slain Pakistani militant as Khalid.
“Both the killed terrorists as per police records the slainmilitants were wanted by law for their complicity in militancy relatedincidents, including attack on securityestablishments and civilian atrocities,” he said.
“According to police records, Khalid was part of groups involved in planning andexecuting series of militant attacks in the area and many other atrocities.Several cases were registered against him. Similarly Umar Shahbaz was alsoinvolved in militancy related incidents,” the spokesman added. “Incriminatingmaterials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site ofencounter. All these materials have been taken into case records for furtherinvestigation. People are requested tocooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of allthe explosives materials if any,” the spokesman added.