SRINAGAR: Youth have opened up a front with a mixed column of police and army when the latter cordoned off an Awantipora village in south Kashmir, reports said. The two sides are busy outwitting each other and the entire belt is reverberating with a mix of tear-smoke shells and slogans.
Reports suggest that the cordon was laid on basis of the inputs that the militants are hiding in the village. Within seconds after the cordon was being enforced, the young men of the belt came out and resorted to stone pelting on them. The police and paramilitary forces started using tear smoke shells.
The tensions between the two sides were intense as this copy was filed. Reports said the clashes were going on for almost an hour now. It was not immediately known if the army has succeeded in implementing the cordon fully.
There was no report about any exchanged of fire between the militants, supposed to be holed up in the village, and the army that has cordoned the village. Malangpora is a major village in the belt that is located not far away from the Railway station on Awantipore-Pulwama road that goes through the IAF base.
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