7 terrorists, 2 troopers killed in JK gunbattles

Seven terrorists were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Pulwama and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, a defence spokesman said.

Security forces shot dead five terrorists in a gunfight in the forest area of Tral in southern Pulwama district and two others in Gurez sector near the Line of Control in Bandipora district of north Kashmir, the spokesman said.

Official sources said the encounter in Tral, 35 km from Srinagar, began on Thursday morning when security forces launched a search operation in Sajan-Dudkulan forest area following information about presence of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists.

They said security forces confronted the terrorists and asked them to surrender but the ultras started firing, triggering a gunbattle.

The identity of the deceased terrorists could not be ascertained immediately as the operation in the area was still on when last reports came in, the sources said.

In Gurez, two more terrorists were killed in the ongoing operation on Thursday morning, raising the number of slain ultras to 13, the defence spokesman said.

The operation began on September 6 when the troops guarding the LoC intercepted a large group of terrorists attempting to sneak from across the border.

While four terrorists were gunned down on the first day of the operation, seven more were eliminated two days later.

Although initially army denied that it had suffered any casualty in the operation, the spokesman on Thursday admitted that two troopers laid down their lives on the first day of the gunbattle.