Militant killed in encounter in South Kashmir’s Tral

An unidentified militant was killed in a gunfight in South Kashmir’s Tral Thursday morning.

The operation that was launched early Thursday morning following inputs about the presence of militant is under progress.

Officials said a joint team of forces cordoned off Nader village of Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

As the joint team of forces were zeroing in on the target, the militants hiding in the area opened fire and tried to break the security cordon. The joint team of forces returned the fire leading to a gunfight.

An unidentified militant was killed in the gunfight, but his body is yet to be recovered, officials said, adding that the operation is under progress and a joint team of forces are searching for other possible militants hiding in the area.

The encounter comes two days after security forces killed three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists in South Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Officials say before the Tuesday encounter, only 14 local militants were listed in Valley.

Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter.

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