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4 top Hizbul militants killed in encounter

In a major success, army troops assisted by a Special Task Force of the local police today killed four top militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen, including an improvised explosive device expert Paplu, in village Gagarmandi, 5 km north-east of Banhihal on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

A defence ministry spokesman said this afternoon that acting on a tip-off about the presence of militants in the village, troops cordoned off the are and conducted a search operation.

The operation was conducted in the supervision of Brig S C Sharma, commanding officer, 12 Rashtriya Rifles and the SSP, Doda, Muneer Khan.

During the operation, militants fired upon the search party, which retaliated and in the ensuing encounter, four top militants, including Paplu, were killed, he said.

He said this group of militants was responsible for the twin blasts on May 28 and 30 in which seven persons, including three ITBP jawans and a son and daughter of an army officer were killed and 18 others injured.

The troops recovered four AK 47 rifles and one prefabricated IED from the slain militants, he said, and added that two militants have been identified so far as Nissar Ahmad Wani alias Paplu and Ghulam Rasool Khan. The identity of the other two is being established.

He said the killing of the Hizbul Mujahideen IED expert has sent shockwaves among the militant belt of Banihal area.

Meanwhile, additional and more specialised troops and sniffer dogs with the capability to detect explosives have been rushed to Banhihal for sanitising the area and to ensure uninterrupted movement of convoys of security forces on the national highway.

UNI

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