J&K: Security forces gun down 2 terrorists in Shopian encounter

Two unidentified terrorists were killed on Wednesday in an encounter with a joint team of police and security forces in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the police said. The security forces had launched a search-and-cordon operation earlier in the day in the Dragad area of Shopian, after receiving intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists.

As per police officials cited by news agencies, the search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists opened fire on the joint team of police and security forces, who hit back with retaliatory gunfire. In the ensuing operation, the two terrorists were killed, the officials said.

However, the identity and group affiliation of the slain terrorists have still not been ascertained, police officials said, adding that investigation is underway in this regard.

Last week, joint security forces had trapped top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Umar Mushtaq Khandey during a similar encounter in the Pampore area of Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Khandey is among the top militants who the security forces were targeting since a hitlist was released by the police in August this year. He was allegedly involved in the killing of two policemen at Baghat in Srinagar district earlier this year, inspector-general of police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.

A total of 11 terrorists have been killed so far in the eight encounters conducted by the security forces after the recent civilian killings in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the police. After the killings of civilians, a number of terrorists had run away to south Kashmir, as per officials.