Internet, train services suspended; residential house damaged

Sopore: Three militants were killed in an overnight gunfight at Seer village of north Kashmir’s police district Sopore on Tuesday.

Official sources in the police said that after credible inputs, a cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched by joint teams of Jammu and Kashmir Police, army’s 52RR, and paramilitary CRPF in Seer village on the outskirts of Sopore on Monday late evening.

They said that the forces closed all the entry and exit points of the village before approaching the suspected house.

“As the teams of forces reached close to the suspected spot, the militants hidden inside a residential house fired at the forces, which was retaliated, resulting in a gunfight. The militants tried to break the cordon but the forces had already closed the area and engaged them till Tuesday afternoon, and killed all the three militants one by one,” a police officer said.

He said all the three bodies have been recovered and no other civilian or forces personnel was injured.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) North Kashmir Sujit Kumar Singh confirmed the killing of three militants in Seer village of Sopore.

Government forces identified the slain militants as Ghulam Mustafa, resident of Tiki village in north Kashmir’s Kupwara, Faizan Fayaz and Muneer Ahmad Ganie, both residents of Shopian district in south Kashmir.

Mobile internet services were snapped in the area and train services between Budgam and Baramulla were also suspended by the government to avoid any untoward incident.

Local sources said that a double-storey residential house was damaged in the encounter while a few other houses also received bullets and splinters in cross-firing.

Official sources said that forces recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from the encounter site.

The search in the debris was continuing when last reports came in.

Seer is a large village under police district Sopore located between Sangrama and Sopore town along the Srinagar-Sopore road.

A police statement issued on the Sopore encounter said that the militants were given an opportunity to surrender, but they instead fired indiscriminately upon the search party.

“Due to darkness the operation was suspended, while the cordon was kept intact. In the wee hours, repeated announcements were again made to the hiding militants to surrender, but the militants again fired on the joint search party and the fire was retaliated,” the police statement said.

It said the slain militants were affiliated with TRF, which police claims is an alleged shadow outfit of LeT.

“Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including 01 AK-47 rifle & 02 Pistols were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation,” the statement said.

Reader correspondent