Three militants affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in a brief gunfight with the government forces in south Kashmir’s Tral sub-district on Friday.
The police has identified the three militants as local residents of the area.
Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar in a press briefing identified the killed trio as Waris Hasan, Arif Bashir, and Syed Hafiz, all residents of Tral. “One AK-47, two pistols, and two grenades were recovered from the encounter site,” he said.
Kumar added that two of the killed militants were newly recruited while another was involved in a grenade attack in Tral this year that had left a trooper and eight civilians injured.
It was the first gunfight this year and had broken out in Mandoora village of Tral on Friday evening.
“The encounter was brief but effective. All the three trapped militants were killed shortly after the area was brought under siege,” the top police official said. “After receiving inputs about the presence of militants, joint forces cordoned off [the village].”
