SRINAGAR: An army soldier and a Special Operations Group SPO were killed and three others injured in an encounter with militants at Kunzar area in Baramulla district on Thursday. Militants managed to escape to safety after the encounter.
The encounter started at around 8:00 AM between the militants and a joint team of armys 29 RR and SOG at Hardshoora Sultanpora in Kunzar, official sources said.
Soon after the gunfight, five persons including three soldiers, an SOG man and a civilian were injured.
While the joint team intensified attack on militants, the injured Nagraj Jageshwar, Niak Jagjeet Singh, Mandeep Kumar of 29 RR were shifted to armys 92 base hospital here and SOG man was shifted to SMHS hospital Srinagar. However, soldier Jageshwar and the Mohammad Shafi Dar (SPO) of Chenbal, Pattan succumbed to their injuries, they said.
The injured civilian identified as Manzoor Ahmad Rather has been shifted to Srinagar for treatment, they said.
The gunfight continued for a brief moment before there was a lull. Later after carrying out the combing operation, the joint team was unable to locate the militants who were believed to be three in number and managed to escape from the encounter site.
Meanwhile police and army have rushed reinforcements and launched searches in adjacent villages in a bid to track the militants.
A police source said, the encounter started after army and SOG Pattan acted on a tip off about the presence of militants in village Hardshoora, Sultanpora on Thursday morning and launched a cordon and search operation in the area.
He said that incharge DIG North Kashmir Ghulam Hassan Bhat and Brigadier Alok Naresh of 10 Sector RR were leading the operation. In the ensuing encounter, a SOG personnel and an Army man were killed, while three other were injured.
An Army man Naagar of 29 RR and Special Police Officer Mohammad Shafi succumbed to their injuries and gave supreme sacrifice of their lives. A civilian Manzoor Ahmed Rather has been hospitalized and is stable. The militants managed to escape and the search operation has been called off, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, hours after the operation was called off, armys 2 RR this evening launched fresh searches in several villages adjacent to Kunzar including Lalpora village to track the fleeing militants.
Defence spokesman said Once the firing subsided, the houses were searched. However, by then the terrorists had moved out of the house. Tracking dogs were pressed into action and the pursuit was launched. Operation is still in progress as per last reports, he said.
Meanwhile, militant out-fit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen hailed the militants who managed to escape from the encounter scene.
According to KNS, Hizb spokesperson Baleegudin said ina tele statement that, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen appreciates the brave efforts of militants who managed to escape unhurt from the encounter scene.
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