3 terrorists, 1 soldier killed in encounters at Pulwama, Kulgam

Three terrorists, including one from an Islamic State offshoot, and a soldier were killed while two jawans suffered injuries in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam and Pulwama districts on Tuesday, police said.

In the Kulgam encounter, two terrorists of the terror group Lashker-e-Tayiba (LeT) were killed, while the one killed in Pulwama belonged to the Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, an IS offshoot, they said.

Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the Redwani area of Kulgam district in south Kashmir around midnight, a police official said in Srinagar.

He said the operation was launched after receiving information about the presence of terrorists in the area.

The official said as the searches were going on, militants fired on the forces, who retaliated.

Two terrorists were killed in the ensuing gunfight while three soldiers were injured, he said.

One of the injured soldiers succumbed at a hospital. He has been identified as Sapper Prakash Jadhav, the official said.

He said arms, ammunition and other incriminating material were seized from the encounter site.

The two terrorists killed in Kulgam were affiliated to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba. They have been identified as Ajaz Ahmad Makroo and Waris Ahmad Malik, the official said.

"As per police records, both the killed terrorists were wanted by the law for their complicity in a series of terror crimes, including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities," a police spokesman said.

He said Makroo was a close associate of LeT commander Naveed Jat and Azad Dada.

In another operation at Hafoo area of Tral in Pulwama district, a militant was killed in an encounter with security forces, the official said.

The ultra killed in the Tral encounter has been identified as Shakir Hassan Dar of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind headed by Zakir Musa, the spokesman said.

Dar was involved in militancy since 2015, he said.