Two soldiers and five militants were killed in a fierce encounter in the frontier district of Kupwara in north Kashmir on Saturday. Two other soldiers were injured.
A group of militants was trapped in a residential area on the slope in Kupwara’s Messeri village in Chowkibal area, over 90 km from Srinagar, by the security forces late on Friday afternoon. “As the Army commenced the search of a suspect house, it came under heavy fire,” said Srinagar-based defence spokesman Lt. Colonel N.N. Joshi.
The exchange of fire continued till Saturday noon. While four bodies of the militants were recovered from the ground floor of the house, one body was found in the basement.
Two soldiers were also killed in the encounter. They were identified as Naik Shinde Shankar Chandrabhan and Gunner Sahadev Maruti.
“Five AK-47 rifles, besides a huge quantity of ammunition and other war-like stores, have been recovered from the site,” said the spokesman.
