Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 14

Two militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Sunday.The gunfight broke this afternoon at Waripora Handwara, some 80 km from Srinagar, when police and Army launched a joint operation in the area.” As the operation was underway, militants hiding in the area opened fire triggering an encounter. Two militants were killed in the gunfight,” police sources said.A senior police officer said that two slain militants belonged to the Lashkar-e- Toiba militant organisation.

Majid Jahangir & Amin Masoodi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Handwara, May 14

In a major breakthrough, security forces killed two Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militants who were a part of the fidayeen attack on an artillery garrison in Kupwara on April 27 that left three Army men, including an officer dead.The militants were killed in a brief gunfight in Kupwara district on Sunday when joint teams of the Army and the police launched an anti-militancy operation in Waripora village of Handwara, around 100 km from Srinagar.“Two fidayeen Lashkar militants killed in Waripora were a part of the infiltrating group that launched an attack on an Army base in Panzgam Kupwara,” J&K Police chief SP Vaid said.The Commanding Officer of 21 Rashtriya Rifles, Colonel Kuldeep Singh, said they had found evidence that confirmed the involvement of the two militants in the Panzgam attack.“We have found a wound on one of the eliminated terrorist which is indicative of likely involvement of these two terrorists in the Panzgam attack. We have found some other evidence, including the war-like stores,” Colonel Kuldeep Singh told reporters.In the first fidayeen attack of the year, an Army captain, two soldiers and two militants were killed while a militant managed to flee from the Army base at Panzgam on April 27. The artillery garrison close to the Line of Control was stormed by the militants from the rear of the camp by cutting the barbed wire.Today’s firefight erupted when the Army’s 21 RR battalion and Special Operations Group of the police, launched an anti-militancy operation following inputs about the presence of the militants.“During the 10-minute firefight, two LeT militants were killed. Their identity is being ascertained but they appear to be Pakistani nationals linked to the Lashkar,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Handwara, Ghulam Jeelani said.“Two AK-47 rifles, two pistols, four AK magazines, two pistol magazines, two UBGL grenades and other articles, including maps, were recovered from the encounter site,” he said.Police sources said for the last one week, the forces had been closely following leads about the presence of the two ultras in the area.

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AK rifle recovered

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