With one unidentified militant holed up and an injured policemen battling for life, gunfight resumed early on Monday morning at Ahmadnagar in the summer capital of Srinagar.
Officials told The Hindu that a militant, unidentified but probably a foreigner, opened fire and made unsuccessful attempts to escape at 6.00 a.m. Police and security forces, who had maintained a tight cordon and vigil on Shadab Colony, foiled his attempts with an intense retaliation. Sources said that the house could be brought down with improvised explosive devices (IED) if the holed up militant continued to hold the vantage position and caused any more harm to police or security forces.
Two CRPF personnel and a policeman were injured in the beginning of the encounter on Sunday evening. Sources said that a head constable from J&K Armed Police 9th battalion, Qazi Mehmood Ahmad, was battling for life at a hospital after getting critically injured.
Khrew area tense
Authorities have meanwhile imposed restrictions on the common civilian movement in Khrew area, on the other side of Srinagar near Pampore, where hundreds of residents on Sunday shouted pro-Azadi slogans and resorted to intense stone pelting on police while demanding custody of the bodies of the two militants who died in an encounter immediately after killing two police guards at the residential house of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court judge Hasnain Masoodi and his son Yawar who is a leader of the youth wing of the ruling National Conference.
Bodies of the two militants are being handed over to the residents for their funeral rites.
Justice Masoodi's Personal Security Officer head constable Abdul Hamid of Rajouri and a house-guard constable Vinod of Tral had got killed when the two militants attacked them and snatched away their service weapons. Later, the Self Loading Rifle was recovered along with two AK-47 rifles when both the militants, officially identified as Usman Mohammad Gauri and Abu Zarr of Abbotabad Pakistan, were killed in the brief encounter at a neighbouring hamlet.
Mr Yawar, according to officials, was the target of the first militant strike in Jammu and Kashmir on any mainstream political worker since the Lok Sabha elections were announced on March 5. He was present inside his home when the militants made an attempt in his life. Sources said Mr Yawar's security was being reviewed and it was being looked into why the Security Wing of J&K Police had not provided any PSOs to him despite his application and a CID threat perception in 2013.
With the key contestants, Mehbooba Mufti of Peoples Democratic Party and Mehboob Beg of National Conference, maintaining low-key campaigning, polling in Anantnag - Pulwama constituency is scheduled on April 24.
