3 LeT militants gunned down in Kashmir’s Pulwama

The encounter lasted for over six hours.

Three Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants were killed in a night long encounter in Pulwama. Their charred bodies were recovered on Thursday morning.

Police sources said all three trapped militants, who engaged the security forces in a gunfight on Wednesday night, were killed in a house. The house of a civilian was completely damaged in the encounter as it caught fire.

The slain militants were identified as Majid, Irshad and Shariq. Two rifles have been recovered from encounter site. All killed militants were locals. One of the three militants is a teenager, aged around 14.

The fresh killing takes the toll of slain militants to five in the past 24 hours.

PTI adds...

The encounter

lasted for over six hours .

Majid Dar, one of the slain militants, was involved in a number of killings, including that of sarpanch of Kakapora and district president of Pulwama, a police official said here.

This is the first successful counter-insurgency operation in Pulwama area, which is believed to have large presence of local militants aided with a strong-network of over ground workers, he said.

The successful operation is a big blow to the LeT terror outfit, which recently lost its commander Junaid Mattoo in an encounter at Arwin village in Anantnag district of South Kashmir on June 17, he added.

This is the second successful operation against the terror outfit within three days.

On Wednesday, two militants were killed in an encounter in Sopore township of Baramulla district in north Kashmir.