Five army men, including a major, two militants and a civilian were killed in an ongoing gunfight between the security forces and ultras in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Friday, four days after 49 paramilitary CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad militants in the same district.
Reports said the gunfight broke out in Pinglan village of Pulwama, 32 kms from here, early morning when security forces launched a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in the area after inputs about the presence of some militants in the area.
“As the cordon was tightened, the militants fired at the forces, triggering a gunfight. In the initial firing, five army personnel, including a major, were killed,” a police official said and added two militants were killed in the retaliatory action by the forces so-far.
The slain soldiers were identified as
Major DS Dondial,
Head Constable Seva Ram,
Sepoy Ajay Kumar,
Sepoy Hari Singh and
Sepoy Gulzar Ahmad.
The owner of the house, where the militants were hiding, identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat was also killed in the incident,” sources said and added the operation was going on.
Sources identified one of the slain terrorists as Kamran alias Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a Pakistani believed to have plotted the terror attack that killed 49 CRPF soldiers.
Another slain militant was identified as Hilal, a local, while another ultra is still believed to be trapped.
The latest incident came just four days after a suicide bomber of Jaish-e-Muhammad rammed his car into the CRPF convoy that was laden with the RDX in large quantity leaving 49 CRPF men dead on Srinagar-Jammu national highway in the same district.
