Three militants, four soldiers, a police constable and a civilian were killed in an 18-hour long gunfight in Pinglina village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Monday.
At least nine forces’ personnel, including a brigade commander and a lieutenant colonel and a deputy inspector general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, were injured in the gun battle that broke out shortly after midnight Pinglina village, about 12 km from where a suicide bomber belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed drove his explosives-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus last week, killing 49 personnel.
The slain soldiers were identified as Major V S Dhondial, Havaldar Sheo Ram and Sepoys Hari Singh and Ajay Kumar.
The slain constable was identified as Abdul Rashid Kalas.
The injured included DIG (south Kashmir) Amit Kumar and a brigade commander. All the injured were airlifted to 92 Base hospital in Srinagar, said an official.
The slain civilian was identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat.
A police spokesman identified the two slain militants as Kamran and Hilal Ahmad of Pinglina.
Kamran, he said, had taken over as operational commander of JeM after Mufti Waqas who was killed in an encounter in February last year. The spokesman said the trio were affiliated with JeM.
Government forces launched a cordon and search operation in the area during the night after receiving inputs about the presence of militants there.
Militants fired at forces as the searches got under way, triggering a gun battle, the officials said.
