SRINAGAR: Five terrorists were killed in two gunfights in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district — one in Gopalpora and the other in Pombai area — on Wednesday.
IGP (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said TRF district commander Afaq Sikander was among the five slain terrorists. Three terrorists were killed in Pombai and two in Gopalpora, he said, in operations that were based on tip-offs from informers.
The encounters were triggered on Wednesday afternoon when joint teams comprising police and CRPF personnel launched cordon-and-search operations in the two areas and the militants fired at the forces when they started closing in.
The Pombai gunfight began first and the terrorists killed there had not yet been identified. The TRF’s Afaq Sikander was among the two terrorists killed in the Gopalpura area, Kumar said.
The police and CRPF, meanwhile, arrested two men linked to the Lashker-e-Taiba in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district and recovered IEDs from them. A police statement said the two terrorist associates were identified as Amir Bashir Dar of Sirnoo, in Pulwama, and Mukhtar Ahmad Bhat of Matri Bugh, Shopian.
In a third incident on Wednesday, two CRPF men and two civilians were injured when terrorists threw a hand grenade at Palhalan chowk, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. All the injured were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.