Three militants, four civilians killed in Kashmir

According to reports, three militants, suspected to be members of the Pakistani terror outfit Lashker-e-Taiba, were gunned down on Saturday  during an hours-long encounter, while a civilian died reportedly in a road accident during a clash that erupted after a mob of local people pelterd the  forces with stones to prevent them from carrying on with the operation.

Elsewhere in the state, militants shot dead three civilians on Friday.

Counterinsurgency police and paramilitary soldiers raided a cluster of homes in Chattabal, a neighbourhood area of Srinagar after getting a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. Troops asked the trapped militants to surrender but they started firing leading to a gunbattle.

Officials said there were three militants, holed up in a house, who kept fighting the forces. The firefight continued for nearly five hours and ended with the killing of three militants.

A CRPF jawan was also injured in the shootout.

Immediately after the gunfight erupted, mobile internet services were shut down and restrictions imposed in sensitive areas.

As the enounter was on, clashes erupted between locals and security forces with stones being showered at the security men. 

A civilian identified as Adil Ahmad Yadoo, who was wounded in unclear circumstances at Noorbagh near the site of gunfight, was rushed to hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The proterster, however, alleged that the youth was runover by police vehicle.

On Friday, militants went on a killing spree gunning down three civilians in two separate incidents in less than 12 hours.

In  north Kashmir's Bandipora district they killed a man and his nephew at Hajin.

Police said militants on Friday night barged into the houses of 45-year-old Ghulam Hassan Dar alias Hassan Rassa and Bashir Ahmad Dar, 26 and abducted both of them at gunpoint.

At about 3:30 Am the terrorists shot both of them dead. Their bodies were found by the locals near a mosque at Raheem Dar Mohalla, Shahgund, Hajin. Ghulam Hassan was the uncle of Bashir Ahmed.

The same day in the evening,  militants had  killed a 35-year-old man and critically injured his wife when they stormed their house at Harwan in apple rich town of Sopore.