Five militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in a fierce encounter with the security forces in the Kramhoora forest area of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara today.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Handwara, Choudery Aslam told Jk News that 21 Rashtriya Rifles of army and police launched a joint operation early in the morning in the Kramhoora forests.
The SP said that during the operation militants fired upon the security forces resulting in a fierce encounter that lasted for several hours.
The SP said that firing has stopped but the operation is going on and it may continue tomorrow also as the security forces apprehend that there are few more militants in the area.
Five militants were killed so far and the operation is going on, said the SP. The identity of the militants is being ascertained; he said adding that 5 AK rifles were recovered from the dead militants.
It may be mentioned here that this is the same area where five militants of LeT including district commander of the outfit were killed in last week.
Five AK rifles, 17 magazines and 3 live grenades were recovered from their possession. They were all foreign militants belonging to LeT.
SP Aslam said that the five militants killed today were part of the same group which was killed last week. He said that this group of militants was based in the forests of the Rajwar area and security forces were after them for long time.
He said that around 15 LeT militants were still operating in the Rajwar forests that have dense vegetation and it gave ample cover to the militants.
Aslam said that security forces were planning today’s operation for past three days and security forces parties were moved inside the forest right during the night and the contact with the militants was established in the morning.
The SP said that these militants were operating from the forests at least for last one year. He said that security forces were planning operation against the militants operating in these dense forests for last few months.
It may be mentioned here that Rajwar forest area has dense vegetation and is near the Line of Control (LoC) and militants have hideouts that gave cover to them.
Today’s operation is one of the successful operations after last week’s operation in which equal number of 5 militants were killed. Security forces are planning more operations in the forest area to flush out the remaining militants.
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