Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 14

A soldier of the Army’s counter-insurgency unit and two unidentified militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district where security forces are battling a group of highly motivated militants from the past five days.The gunfight broke out in the wee hours at Panar forest in Bandipora, over 60 km from Srinagar, where a massive combing operation has been underway since June 9.“In the ongoing operation, two terrorists were killed and one Army soldier was martyred,” Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said.The operation, he said, was still in progress. The identities and group affiliation of the slain militants could not be established immediately.Defence sources, giving details about the operation, said militants ambushed an Army patrol of the 14 Rashtriya Rifles in the Bandipora forest area in the wee hours in which Rifleman Manvendra Singh got injured.“He was airlifted to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar, but was declared brought dead on his arrival,” a source said. “The militants fled after the ambush, but Army men chased them and in the gunfight that followed, two terrorists were killed,” the source added.The ongoing operation has been termed as a “difficult one” by the defence sources. “Primarily, it is a difficult operation and militants are still hiding in the jungle. There are some pockets where there is civil population and we are combing the area very carefully,” a defence official said.The massive anti-militancy operation in Bandipora was launched last Saturday to track down a group of freshly infiltrated militants which was hiding in the area.Prior to Thursday’s gunfight, security forces and militants have exchanged fire at least six times in the large forest area over the past five days. But each time, the militants had managed to give the forces the slip. The Army, however, has maintained a tight cordon around the forest to ensure that militants don’t manage to escape.The first contact with the militants was established on Saturday evening when an Army patrol was fired upon by militants. The fire was retaliated and the exchange of fire lasted briefly.

Combing underway

• A gunfight broke out inthe wee hours at Panar forest in Bandipora, over 60 km from Srinagar, where a massive combing operation has been underway since June 9.
• In the ongoing operation, two terrorists were killed and one Army soldier, Rifleman Manvendra Singh of Kabiltha village in Uttarakhand was martyred.