In yet another gun battle in South Kashmir, police and security forces on Monday night claimed to have killed at least one militant of Lashkar-e-Taiba at Neelora village of Pulwama district.
The operation was launched when police received a tip-off regarding presence of two militants at Neelora late on Monday evening, Vijay Kumar, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (South Kashmir), told The Hindu over telephone from the site of the encounter. As the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the J&K Police zeroed in on a hideout, the holed up militants opened fire. One militant, identified as Ashiq Lone of Hef Shirmal, died in the gun battle.
The DIG said that the cordon-and-search operation would continue on Tuesday as one more militant was suspected to be trapped in a cluster of residential houses at the village. He said that two men of the SOG sustained injuries in the gunbattle.
