Army officer, 2 jawans & 5 ultras killed in Sopore encounter
An Army officer and two jawans were killed during an 18-hour gun-battle which saw the elimination of five top militants of Pakistan-based terror outfits in Sopore district of North Kashmir, reports from Srinagar said.
The killed armymen have been identified as Captain Devinder Singh Jass, Naik Selva Kumar and paratrooper Imtiyaz Ahmad Thokar. How-ever, a report from Bhopal quoting Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor said the dead officer was a Major. A resident of Shopian in South Kashmir, Imtiyaz is the second paratrooper killed while fighting militants. In March last year, paratrooper Shabbir Malik was killed fighting terrorists in Hafruda forests of Kupwara.
The militants suspected to have been killed included Bhasharat of Hizbul Mujahideen and Noman and Hamza of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Sallahuddin of Lashkar-e-Toiba and a local militant Tauseef Mir, the sources said. Located 54-km from Srinagar, Sopore turned into a virtual fortress with police, army and para-military men marching into the area.The terrorists, in their last ditch attempt to escape, blew up the two houses which were being used by them to fire at security forces since 2 am.
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