Five militants were killed in a gunfight in South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Sunday.The gun fight occurred in Reban village early morning.A police official told that inputs about the presence of militants were received and the village was brought under siege. During search operation, contact with militants hiding in a house was established and during the fierce exchange of fire, five militants were killed.He said bodies of all the militants were retrieved from the debris.Local sources told news agency KNT that a couple of structures were damaged in the encounter.IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that a top commander was also killed in the encounter. He said it was a successful and clean operation.Shortly after the gunfight, mobile internet services were snapped in the district.According to the reports, a joint team of J&K Police, Army's 01 Rashtriya Rifles and CRPF launched this operation. Police said on a specific input generated by Police, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Shopian police, 1 RR and 178 Bn CRPF in Reban area of district Shopian.
Police spokesman said that during the search operation, the hiding militants fired on the joint search party and the fire was retaliated leading to an encounter.“In the ensuing encounter, five militants were killed and their bodies have been retrieved from the site of encounter,” said the spokesman.He said that the identification and affiliation of the killed terrorists is being ascertained. However, as per credible sources, the slain militants belonged to proscribed militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and one among the killed militants is believed to be a top commander.“In case any family claims the killed militants to be their kith or kin can come forward for the identification,” said the spokesman.“Incriminating material including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter,” he said.“All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other crimes,” he added.“In this connection, a case under relevant sections of law stands registered in Police Station Zainapora and investigation has been initiated. People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials if any,” said police spokesman in a statement. Pertinently, in the first week of this month the tally of militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 14, implies two killings per day.(KNT)