SRINAGAR: Two soldiers and a new recruit of Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed in an overnight gunfight that erupted after a security team surrounded a house in Chermarg village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district and the armed terrorist holed up inside fired his AK-47, police said on Saturday.
Kashmir zone IGP Vijay Kumar said terrorist Abdul Qayoom Dar of Larow Kakapora in Pulwama, about 30km south of Srinagar, was shot dead in retaliatory fire by the combined team of Army and J&K police during the nightly operation on February 18 and 19.
He said the terrorist fired when the team was questioning the house-owner, fatally wounding two of the soldiers. The dead soldiers were sepoys Santosh Yadav and Chavan Romit Tanaji of the Army’s 1 Rashtriya Rifles.
The officer said the house-owner has been arrested under anti-militancy laws. The slain terrorist was a new LeT operative. He was arrested after a shooting in April 2020, but was released in August 2021. He was under watch and Pulwama police sent an alert some days ago that he had moved out of his village.
“He was consequently listed as a category C terrorist,” the IGP said.
