Militants holed-up in a house at Chinkkipora village of Sopore on Tuesday killed three soldiers of Special Forces who had gone to flush out the ‘high-value target’.
The militants, believed to be five in number, were killed in the gun battle.
Police said after receiving a tip-off, a joint column of army, CRPF and local police surrounded the residential area in the wee hours to flush out the militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
They lobbed grenades on the search party, killing three soldiers — Captain Devinder Singh Jass, Naik P Selva Kumar and Paratrooper Imtiyaz Ahmad Thokar.
The operation ended after all the militants hiding inside were killed by late evening, defence spokesperson, Lt Col JS Brar, said.
Bodies of militants, whose number was not confirmed, are yet to be pulled out of the debris. Bodies of the three soldiers were, however, retrieved.
Grenades lobbed by the militants killed Captain Jass when he and his men tried to storm the house where they were hiding. There were also reports that the officer was overpowered by the militants, but this was not confirmed by the army.
To avoid any civilian casualties, the security forces vacated the adjoining houses. The media was kept several hundred meters away from the encounter area.
Home town of Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Sopore was once the hotbed of militancy and some top militants including LeT’s Kashmir chief Abdullah Unni operates from the apple-rich town. Unni has escaped arrest and encounters with the security forces umpteen times in the past.
