Kashmir gunfight claims army officer and four militants

Srinagar:  An Indian Army captain was killed, the second loss of an officer in less than 10 days in Jammu and Kashmir, and four militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen terror group were shot dead in a gunfight yesterday, officials said.

Captain Deepak Sharma was killed in the battle which began on Wednesday and resumed yesterday morning in Dadsara village, 35km from here in south Kashmir Pulwama district, army spokesman Col J.S. Brar told reporters.

Sharma, from Rohtak in Haryana, was in the army for six years, and was serving the counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles in the terror-riven state.

"Four militants were killed. Their bodies have been recovered from under the debris [of the house which was razed in the shootout]," Brar said.

A police official said the four slain militants were local residents and belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen, which is the biggest terror outfit in Kashmir.

The militant group mostly draws its members from the state unlike other outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad that have foreign guerrillas fighting in the valley and other Muslim-dominated areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

The slain militants have been identified as Mohammad Ameen Mir alias Mitha, Shabir Ahmad Mir, Khalid (known only by his first name) and Gulam Mohammad Mir alias Janwar.

The police official said that the operation lasted for over 30 hours and the army and police were busy in the mopping up operation. The civilians living in the house and around had already been evacuated.