J-K: Civilian Wounded In Anantnag Gunfight Succumbs To Injuries, Toll Reaches 3

The encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district began after terrorists opened fire in a joint search panel including Army troopers, para commandos, and local police.

A civilian who was injured in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Kokernag forest area under Anantnag district on Saturday succumbed to the injuries. Two soldiers were killed while three others and two civilians were injured in the encounter. 

Havildar Dipak Kumar Yadav and Lance Naik Praveen Sharma laid down their lives in the line of duty during the crossfire. One of the two injured civilians also succumbed to injuries, reported India Today. 

The encounter, which took place an at altitude of 10,000 feet, began when a group of terrorists opened fire on the joint search panels comprising Army troopers, including para commandos, and local police. 

The search operation was initiated based on intelligence reports indicating the presence of terrorists in the remote Ahlan Gagarmandu forest area of Kokernag in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. 

The injured civilians and personnel were receiving medical treatment at a nearby hospital. 

Reinforcements were sent to the area and search for the fleeing terrorists is underway. 

The encounter comes a year after a similar operation in the Kokernag region last September took the lives of four security personnel including Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish, and Deputy SP Humayun Bhat. Two terrorists, including a senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were neutralised during that week-long engagement. 

The security forces had confirmed through human and electronic means the presence of terrorists who were responsible for atrocities in the Doda region in July to have sneaked across the Kishtwar region into the Kapran-Garol area in south Kashmir, said a Srinagar-based defence spokesperson. 

"The Rashtriya Rifles and the Jammu and Kashmir Police have relentlessly tracked these terrorists and precise operations were launched on the night of August 9 and 10 in the mountains in the east of Kapran where these terrorists were reportedly holed up.

"Suspicious movement was observed at around 2 pm on August 10. Challenging (by security forces) was immediately responded by indiscriminate, desperate and reckless firing from terrorists in which two Army personnel and two civilians, in the vicinity were injured," the spokesperson said.