By YUSUF JAMEEL
Srinagar, March 23: Four policemen and a top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba commander were killed in a major gunbattle between separatist militants and the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar on Sunday.
Two policemen including a sub-inspector and a militant were injured during the clash, officials said. The injured militant, however, succeeded in breaking out of the police dragnet, driving the security forces into a massive search operation launched in and around Telbal, the scene of the encounter, to hunt him down.
The gunbattle broke out after the police learnt about the presence of Lashkar’s divisional commander Abu Faisal and an accomplice in a private house at Kashi Mohalla Dangarpora, Telbal, on the outskirts of the main city. Members of the local police’s counter-insurgency Special Operation Group (SoG), along with CRPF personnel, quickly laid siege to the area. While they were zeroing in on the target house, two holed-up militants rushed out, targeting the policemen with rifle fire and grenades. The slain policemen have been identified as Bashir Ahmed, Irshad Ahmed, Muhammad Kabir (all from SoG) and Sham Singh of 122 Battalion of the CRPF. The injured policemen are sub-inspector Umesh Thakur and constable Mushtaq Ahmed.
The clash comes days after the militants set off a powerful bomb at Srinagar’s only flyover at Jehangir Chowk intersection, killing one pedestrian and wounding about two dozen civilians and a policeman.
Officials said that before taking on the militants, a police party was sent into the area to evacuate the residents and shift them to safer areas in order to prevent civilian casualties. "The slain commander was responsible for militant activities in Kangan and Ganderbal area, including a grenade attack at the tourist resort of Sonamarg and firing on an Army convoy at Kangan," a police press release issued here said.
