The gunfight started after security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the Hind-Sitapora village of Shopian district.
Security personnel in Shopian. (File Photo: IANS)
At least two terrorists from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were neutralised in an early morning gunfight in Jammu-Kashmir’s Shopian on Sunday.
One of the two terrorists killed was a former special police officer (SPO).
Reports say that the gunfight started after security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the Hind-Sitapora village of Shopian district. The forces had received information about the presence of terrorists in the village.
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As a joint team of Army’s 34RR and SOG Shopian cordoned off the area, the terrorists opened fire at security forces triggering the gunfight.
The slain men were identified as Basharat Ahmad and Tariq Ahmed, both locals.
Tariq was a constable posted at police post Pakherpora Budgam and went missing along with an AK-47 rifle on 25 April last year. He later joined the LeT.
Weapons and other materials have been seized from the site of the encounter.
Several persons were injured as clashes broke out between security forces and stone pelters who indulged in violence at the encounter spot.
In one of the major encounters with terrorists earlier this month in Shopian, security forces killed Lateef Ahmad Dar aka Lateef Tiger, a top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen group and a close associate of the slain terror poster boy Burhan Wani.
Lateef was among the three terrorists killed on 3 May. He belonged to Awantipora town of Pulwama district.
He was killed in Adkhara village of Imam Sahib area. Lateef was among the last two surviving members of the so-called 12-member ‘Burhan Brigade’ in south Kashmir. The only member alive is Tariq Pandit, who was arrested by security forces in 2016.
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