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Three terrorists have been killed in a gunfight in Tral tehsil of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, the police said on Thursday.
Vidhi Kumar Birdi, the Inspector General of Police for Kashmir, said that three terrorists have been killed in the encounter and their link with the Pahalgam attack remains currently under investigation. He further said that their identities are being ascertained.
The police said around 6 am in the morning that an encounter had started in Tral, Pulwama.
In a separate statement, the IANS reported the Indian Army as saying that a cordon and search operation was launched by the Army, the J&K Police, and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), at Tral’s Nader area based on specific intelligence input.
“Suspicious activity was observed by vigilant troops and on being challenged, terrorists opened heavy fire and fierce gunfight ensued,” read the statement.
Sources have said that all three terrorists killed in the encounter belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed. They said that the three terrorists are Asif Ahmad Sheikh, Amir Nazir Wani, and Yawar Ahmad Bhat.
Sources further said that the police are establishing whether the Asif killed is the same Asif suspected to have provided support to terrorists who carried out the massacre at Pahalgam on April 22.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThis is the second encounter this week in Kashmir. Earlier on Tuesday, officials said that three terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed in Shopian. They said that one of those killed, Shahid Kuttay, was a senior figure of the terrorist group in the region.