Army officer, soldier, 3 militants killed in Kashmir gunfight

Srinagar:

An army officer, a soldier and three separatist guerrillas were killed in a south Kashmir gunfight that ended Saturday morning, an official said.

A senior police officer told IANS that the three guerrillas were killed in an encounter in Karewa Manloo village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district that started on Friday afternoon and ended yesterday.

“The operation was carried out on specific information by 44 battalion of Rashtriya Rifles and the special operations group (SOG) of the state police,” the official said, adding that the bodies of the guerrillas had been recovered from the site.

“We have also recovered their weapons and ammunition. One of the slain militants is a foreigner while the other two are locals,” the officer said.

A residential house in which the militants were trapped was destroyed in the fighting. The army officer and another soldier were killed after a militant rose from the debris of the destroyed house and fired on the advancing troops, said a police officer.

Soon after the gunbattle ended, clashes erupted in the village and the nearby town of Shopian as hundreds of residents hurled rocks at the troops..