A Commanding Officer of army was killed while a soldier and a policeman were injured in a fresh gunfight in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.Official sources told Srinagar based news gathering agency GNS that army’s 41 RR and Para commandos had intercepted the group of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants last evening. The militants opened heavy fire triggering off a brief encounter at Behak forest area near Sonwali village in Manigah.However, they said that the group had managed to escape again while taking advantage of darkness in the area last evening.“Today afternoon, the group was again intercepted by the Para-troopers and army’s 41 RR in the upper belt of forest area. The militant group opened indiscriminate fire upon the troops resulting in injuries to two soldiers including commanding officer of 41 RR identified as Colonel Santosh Mahadik and a policeman of SOG”, they said.They said that after a brief gunfight the militant group managed to escape again while taking the advantage of dense bushes. “Since last week the said group had managed to give slip to troops at three different locations”.
The injured soldier was identified as Majloon Ahmad of TA 160 and was attached with army’s 41 RR while as the policeman has been identified as Showkat Ahmad, they said.All the injured were immediately evacuated to military hospital in Drugmulla where from CO was referred to army’s 92 Base Hospital here, they said.However, the doctors present at the military hospital declared the officer as brought dead, they said.“Commanding officer lost his life while fighting with militants while as a soldier and a policeman received injuries in the encounter”, Army’s Srinagar based defence ministry official told GNS.
He said that the search operation in the area is still going on.Following the death of CO, more reinforcement from 9 para-commandos and SOG were rushed to the area to trace out the fleeing militants, official sources said.During the process, the army also pressed choppers and sniffer dogs into service to locate the hiding militants, they said.Pertinently, two soldiers were injured On Friday evening when the group of militants attacked them before escaping from the spot.On Nov 10, the army’s 41 RR had recovered the body of a militant in Kumkadi forests of Manigah who is believed to have died due to severe cold. (GNS)