SRINAGAR: The nearly 40-hour long gunfight between militants and a joint team of police and army ended on Friday with the killing of three militants and injuries to four army soldiers, including an officer, and a policeman.
Quoting a police officer news agency GNS reported that three bodies were recovered from the encounter site, two yesterday and one, that of Hilal, today.
The bodies recovered yesterday included that of the top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Yousuf Kantroo, who according to police had been active for the last 22 years.
The encounter had ensued at Malwah area of the district around 4 a.m. on April 21 after a joint team of Police along with the Army (62RR) launched a joint cordon and search operation in area.
“During the search operation as the joint search party reached the suspected spot, the hiding (militants) fired indiscriminately upon them in which four (04) soldiers including one officer received minor injuries. The fire was effectively retaliated, leading to an encounter,” a police spokesperson said in a statement, adding, “Later on Baramulla Police headed by SSP Baramulla also joined in the operation. One policeman from Baramulla district also got injured in the encounter who was later on shifted to Army’s base hospital in Srinagar.”
In the ensuing encounter, three militants of LeT including outfit commander Yousuf Kantroo, one of the longest surviving militants, were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter. Identification of two militants is officially awaited even as they are said to be Hilal and Faisal Hafiz.
