Six more terrorists were killed on Friday in two ongoing gun battles in south Kashmir’s Pulwama and Shopian districts, eight since Thursday, police and defence officials said Rajesh Kalia, the Indian Army spokesperson, said five terrorists have been gunned down killed in Shopian and three in Pulwama in the two encounters in the last 24 hours. Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation at Meej in Pampore area of Pulwama in south Kashmir on Thursday morning after receiving specific information about the presence of terrorists in the area, a police official said. The official said the search operation turned into an encounter after terrorists fired upon a search party of the forces, who retaliated.
One terrorist was killed in the gunfight on Thursday but two others entered a nearby mosque to take refuge, the official said. He said the cordon around the mosque was maintained throughout the night. On Friday morning, security forces used tear smoke shells to force the holed up terrorists out of the mosque, the officials said, adding the two were then killed by the forces while maintaining the sanctity of the religious place. Vijay Kumar, Kashmir’s inspector general of police, said no one fired any weapon and no improvised explosive device (IED) was used to force the terrorists out of the mosque. “Patience and professionalism worked. No use of firing and IED. Used tear smoke shells only. Maintained sanctity of the mosque. Both terrorists hiding inside mosque neutralised,” Kumar said. Another operation at Munand-Bandpava area of Shopian, which also began on Thursday, continued on Friday, officials said. They said one terrorist was killed in the operation in the area on Thursday. Four more terrorists were eliminated on Friday.
