Two Hizb militants, civilian killed in Kashmir encounter

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, including Sameer Ahmed Bhat alias 'Sameer Tiger', were today gunned down and a civilian killed in an encounter in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, police said.

Two armymen also suffered bullet injuries in the encounter that took place in Pulwama's Drabgam area, police officials said.

Acting on an intelligence tip-off that militants were holed up inside a house, a joint team of personnel from the army, special task force of the state police and CRPF cordoned off the area.

As the search operation closed in on the house, security personnel received a barrage of bullets in which two armymen were injured, officials said.

The civilian was killed when security forces were trying to chase away a stone pelting mob, the officials said.

Civilians wanted to throng the encounter site so that militants could run away, an official said.

Around noon, security personnel, who were fighting stone pelting from the civilians, fired at heavily at the house, thereby creating an explosion, officials said.

About an hour later, the first militant, identified as Aaquib Mushtaq, was killed. He was a local resident belonging to Rajpora area of Pulwama.

Around 2.15 pm, Sameer Tiger, who is alleged to have carried several political and civilian killings in the Pulwama area, was gunned down, the officials added.

Sameer Tiger had been involved in militancy since April 2016.