A militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, the Army said.
“One militant has been killed in the ongoing encounter in the forest area of Kupwara district,” an Army official said.
Security forces had launched an operation in the Kandi forest area of Kupwara on Wednesday after a patrol of Army soldiers came under fire from militants, the official said.
He said a gunbattle broke out between the two sides in which one soldier was critically injured. The jawan was rushed to an Army hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Meanwhile, the authorities on Thursday imposed curfew in a volatile north Kashmir town after a youth was reportedly killed in firing by security forces on Wednesday, a police officer said.
The restrictions were imposed in Trehgam and all schools and colleges shut in the border disrict of Kupwara to maintain law and order amid fear of street protests.
The authorities also suspended mobile Internet services in Baramulla and Kupwara as a precautionary measure.
Khalid Gaffar, 20, was killed on Wednesday night when an Army patrol opened fire after it was attacked by a mob of stone-pelters in Trehgam town, 70 km north of Srinagar.
Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia in a statement said that a mob of 30 to 40 youth resorted to heavy stone-pelting at the Army’s highway domination patrol at Trehgam around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
The stone-pelters were verbally cautioned before two blank rounds were fired in air to disperse the “violent crowd”.
But they didn’t relent. Five soldiers sustained injuries in the incident.
