Army man, 3 militants killed, civilian injured in gunfight in J-K’s Pulwama

An army jawan and three militants were killed in an encounter between militants and security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Monday, on a day the Centre’s interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma arrived in the state to initiate the dialogue process.

A civilian was also wounded during clashes between protesters and security forces near the encounter site.

Officials said the gun fight broke out after a joint team of the army, police and CRPF launched a search operation following inputs about the presence of militants in Kandil Aglar village of Pulwama.

The police control room in Pulwama said the encounter started around 6pm after the militants opened fire at the security forces.

Kashmir inspector general of police Muneer Khan told HT Monday evening that they were trying to ascertain the identities of the three militants. “Possibly one should be local and two were foreigners,” Khan said, adding that they were searching the area.

An army spokesman said two AK-47 rifles and one pistol were recovered from the site.

Police said the three slain militants were involved in an attack on Sunday in Pulwama in which a policeman was killed.

Local reports said protests also erupted near the encounter site, in which a civilian received bullet injuries. The police control room in Pulwama confirmed that protests took place near the encounter site.

Pulwama superintendent of police Mohammad Aslam confirmed that a civilian was wounded during the operation, and was referred to the SKIMS hospital in Srinagar.

A police spokesman later said the civilian was injured in crossfire.

Syed Amin Tabish, medical superintendent at SKIMS, said they were evaluating the injured civilian, who is around 18 years old. “He is stable,” Tabish told HT late in the evening.

The violence took place at a time when Dineshwar Sharma, a former chief of the Intelligence Bureau who was tasked by the Union government to initiate talks in Kashmir over the three-decade-old insurgency, arrived in Srinagar.

BJP leader ‘targeted’ in Pulwama?

Meanwhile, conflicting reports also emerged about an alleged attack on the vehicle of BJP Yuva Morcha general secretary Abhijeet Mishra in Pulwama.

Mishra had gone to meet the family of BJP youth leader Gowhar Bhat, who was found with his throat slit in Shopian on November 2.

A senior BJP leader, not wishing to be named, said Mishra’s vehicle was apparently targeted at Bonar in Pulwama, while he was returning from Shopian. He said the vehicle bore two bullet marks.

However, an official at the Pulwama police control room denied any militant attack on Mishra. “Our escort was with him and they said nothing happened in Pulwama. His vehicle only had some marks of stones,” the official said.

The Shopian police control room also denied any such attack.