2 militants killed in encounter with security forces in J&K

Two militants were on Saturday killed in separate encounters with security forces in Baramulla and Shopian districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

While an unidentified militant was killed in Sopore township of Baramulla district of north Kashmir, another was killed in Shopian district of south Kashmir in an operation which began on Friday, a police officer said.

Acting on specific information about the presence of militants in Warpora area of Sopore in Baramulla, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there on Saturday morning, he said.

As the forces was searching the area, the militants fired upon them. The forces retaliated, ensuing a gunfight in which one militant was killed, the officer said.

The identity and group affiliation of the slain ultra was being ascertained, he added.

In another operation which began in Pandushan area of Shopian on Friday, the officer said security forces killed a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant Manzoor Bhat.

On Friday, another JeM militant Zeenat ul Islam Naikoo, a resident of Memandar area of Shopian, was killed in the gunfight, the officer said.

He said both the militants were involved in a series of terror crimes and other civilian atrocities.

"Naikoo has a long history of terror crime records and several terror crime cases were registered against him including relating to attack on police station Shopian, abduction of a civilian Shakoor Ahmad, killing of four policemen in Shopian, abduction and killing of a civilian Tanveer Ahmad among others," he said.