Srinagar: A commander and two militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit were killed in an 18-hour fierce gunfight in Mujgund area on the outskirts of Srinagar on Sunday. Massive clashes ensued at the site, leading to three civilians sustaining bullet injuries.
Five residential houses were also damaged in the gunfight.
Acting on a “specific input” about presence of militants in a residential house at Ghat Mohalla village in Mujgund area, the joint teams of special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir police, army’s 5 Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force launched searches in the area at around 6 pm on Saturday, reports stated.
“After zeroing in on a suspected house, forces fired some warning shots after which the militants resorted to indiscriminate firing. The forces returned the fire, triggering a fierce gun-battle,” a police officer was quoted by Greater Kashmir as having said.
“By midnight, we were able to kill two local militants but the third one continued to fire at us,” he said, as per the report.
He said the forces installed high-beam lights and strengthened what is called “outer and middle-layer cordon’ in police parlance to “ensure the last militant doesn’t flee”, GK reported.
“There was a law and order situation throughout the night as youth continued to engage forces in pitched battles,” he said, quoted in the report.
The officer said the firing stopped at 10 pm, GK reported.
“We decided not to retrieve the bodies because we had a credible input about presence of three militants in the area. Knowing that two of them have been killed, we decided to wait for the first light of Sunday,” he said, quoted by GK.
According to the police officer, the third militant, identified as Pakistani, opened indiscriminate firing at the forces, the report stated.
“From 2am to 5am, there was a lull again and these three hours were used by the last militant to sleep,” the officer said, adding: “From 5 am onwards, he resorted to indiscriminate firing at forces which was retaliated. He kept on changing locations by moving from one house to another. He fought us and was a well trained militant”, the report stated.
The forces launched “assault” with the first light of the day but due to dense fog, the operation couldn’t be finished early, he said, according to the report.
“As the fog cover thinned, the final assault was launched at around 9.30 am which resulted in the killing of the third militant,” the officer said, quoted in the report.
Quoted in the report, he said three civilians also sustained bullet injuries “in exchange of firing between forces and militants”.
A soldier and two policemen sustained injuries in the encounter but all of them are stable, a police official said, cited in the report.
Kashmir range Inspector General of Police Swayam Prakash Pani confirmed the killing of three militants in the overnight gunfight, according to the GK report.
According to the report, the residents of the Mujgund stated that forces used mortar shells and fired scores of bullets towards houses where the militants were holed up and “with the result, five residential houses caught fire and got fully damaged”.
A police officer, in response to the comments, stated that “these were hut-type small structures with wooden material that easily caught fire”.
Meanwhile, the police have asked the people not to “enter into the encounter site till its proper sanitisation”.
A police spokesman said that two slain militants were identified as Mudasir Rashid Parray and Saqib Bilal Sheikh—both from Hajin area of Bandipora district—while the third militant was identified as Ali Bhai, a Pakistani national. All the three belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba, the spokesman said, adding: “The slain militants were wanted by law for their complicity in crimes”.
“Ali, according to police records, was involved in several militancy crimes and cases including attacks on forces. He was also involved in recruitment of local youth in Sumbal areas of Bandipora,” the police spokesman said in a statement.
A police official said that Ali was a Lashkar commander wanted in many cases. “He was A++ category militant and responsible for luring both Mudasir and Saqib into Lashkar fold,” the official said
According to the GK report, citing sources, Mudasir had been studying in class 9 and was aged 14, while Saqib had been in class 11 and was aged 17.
Both of them had joined militancy on August 31 after the killing of two militants in a gunfight in the area, the report stated.
Apart from nocturnal clashes around Ghat area of Mujgund, civilians from HMT, Narbal and Mujgund marched towards the gunfight site on Sunday morning, and were dispersed after forces’ personnel fired teargas shells pellets.
According to the report, the protestors hurled rocks and bricks at the forces amid pro-freedom slogans.
Clashes were on in the area even after the gunfight ended, the report stated.
