56-hour Kupwara encounter kills two militants, five security men

People attend the funeral procession of CRPF inspector Pintu Kumar Singh, who was killed in an encounter with militants in Kupwara district, ahead of his final rites, in Patna, on Sunday. Pic/PTI

Two militants, five security forces personnel, including a CRPF officer, and a civilian were killed in a 56-hour encounter in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), police said on Sunday.

A police spokesman said the operation at Babagund area of Kupwara took time as it posed considerable difficulties to the security forces due to the topography of the area. Security officers killed two militants in the encounter, which began on Friday morning, the police spokesman said.

He said bodies of both the militants were recovered from the site of the encounter and their identities and affiliations are being ascertained. The spokesman said a CRPF jawan "identified as Sham Narayan Singh Yadav" who was injured in the exchange of fire on Friday, succumbed to injuries on Sunday "taking the number of security forces' fatalities to five".

Two CRPF personnel, Inspector Pintu and Constable Vinod, and two cops, Selection Grade Constables Naseer Ahmad and Ghulam Mustafa Barah, were killed in the gunfight on Friday, the spokesman said. He said one civilian, Waseem Ahmad Mir, also sustained bullet injuries "in the nearby area" and later succumbed at a hospital on Friday. The encounter had begun when security forces launched a search operation in Babagund area following information about the presence of militants there.

"Area, where the terrorists were hiding, was very congested and civilians in the adjoining houses had to be evacuated to safer places away from the site of the encounter," he said. He said incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the site of encounter.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever