Captain, 4 terrorists killed in Pulwama encounter

A captain of the Rashtriya Rifles was killed and three other troopers wounded in a fierce encounter in Dadsara village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

A senior police officer said Captain Deepak Sharma of 42 RR battalion was killed on Thursday morning as the troopers were busy searching the debris of the house, where the militants taken refuge.

Exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces, which began on Wednesday, resumed at Dadsara village near Tral town on Thursday morning.

The officer said three Rashtriya Rifles troopers were shifted to the hospital for treatment.

The encounter started on Wednesday morning after security forces surrounded a house in the Dadsara village, 32 km from Srinagar,

on specific information that a group of terrorists was hiding there."When the security forces challenged the holed up terrorists, they opened fire triggering an encounter, which is still on," the officer said.

Captain Sharma is the second Army officer to be killed in an encounter in Kashmir in less than a fortnight. On February 24, Captain Devinder Singh Jass was killed in a gunbattle with terrorists in Sopore.

 
The officer said the firing has now stopped. The bodies of four terrorists belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit have been recovered from the debris.