Srinagar, Nov 8: Security forces shot dead two unidentified militants in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sopore sub district, officials said on Friday.

This was the fifth encounter in Kashmir in the last one week.

The latest encounter erupted late Thursday when joint forces launched a cordon and a search operation in the Panipora Sopore following a specific input about militant presence in the area.

“As the cordon was being laid by Army, Police and CRPF, the terrorists hiding in a house opened fire which was retaliated in a professional manner. The forces ensured that the terrorists didn’t manage to move from the spot. …The locals were immediately evacuated from the houses,” Brigadier Deepak Mohan told reporters in Sopore.

He said the forces maintained a surveillance of the area and this morning as the forces were evacuating some more civilians, the terrorists opened indiscriminate firing which was retaliated.

“In the gunbattle two terrorists were neutralized. Their identification is being ascertained,” Brigadier Mohan said, adding that arms and war-like stores were recovered from them.

The officer said that the two slain were active in north Kashmir and their killing is a major success to the security forces.

This is the third encounter since Tuesday in north Kashmir. In earlier two encounters two militants were killed in separate encounters in Kupwara and Bandipora districts.

Deputy Inspector general of Police, north Kashmir Maqsood-Ul-Zaman, said it will be too early to say if the militants killed in three separate encounters in north Kashmir were part of one group or not.

UNI