Srinagar: Two militants including a Lashkar-e-Toiba commander from Pakistan and a local militant from south Kashmir are trapped in Barzulla area of Srinagar where a gunfight is underway, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar said.

Kumar, who was talking to reporters at the gunfight site, said that LeT commander Saifullah and another local militant from sout Kashmir were trapped there.

As per Kumar, Saifullah was involved in the attack on CRPF on September 24 in which an ASI of CRPF was killed. He was also involved in the killing of two CRPF men and injuring three at Kandizaal, Pampore, the IGP said.

Kumar said Saifullah had infiltrated into Kashmir this year only and was first operating in north Kashmir and since past two months, he was operating in south Kashmir.

He said no militant has been killed in the ongoing gunfight.
“It will take time as we are avoiding collateral damage,” the Kashmir Police chief said.
Kumar said they had received a specific input about presence of Safiullah and a local militant from south Kashmir in the area on Sunday evening.
“We laid a cordon and the militant got trapped,” he said.

He said many civilians were evacuated from the area which is congested after which they offered the militants to surrender but they refused triggering a gunbattle. (KNO)

Reader correspondent