Two militants, including a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ‘commander’, and a soldier were found dead at the Anantnag encounter site, taking the toll to six, the J&K Police said on Tuesday.
The combing operation of the Gadool hill in Anantnag’s Kokernag continued for the seventh day on September 19 as the area is being sanitised.
“Uzair Khan [of the LeT] has been killed and his body has been retrieved. There is another body lying on the ground. We had information about the presence of two to three terrorists in the area,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Vijay Kumar said.
Mr. Kumar said it was Khan who was behind the killing of an Army Colonel, a Major and a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) on the first day of the gunfight on September 13.
Meanwhile, the Army has recovered the body of a soldier, who was missing at the encounter site, on September 18. The deceased was identified as Sepoy Pardeep Singh.
J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on September 19 laid a wreath and paid homage to Sepoy Singh. “A grateful nation will always remain indebted to his martyrdom. The entire nation stands firmly with his family in this hour of grief,” L-G Sinha said.
Meanwhile, locals in the Gadool hill have been advised by the police to “not go closer to the encounter site as unexploded grenades or shells may cause harm to them”.
The Gadool operation was one of the longest anti-militancy operations in Kashmir in more than a decade. The Army used high-tech gadgets, rocket fire and heavy mortar shelling to flush out the militants and hit the hideouts on the hill.
The seven-day operation saw the death of four security personnel, including three officers, and two militants. Two soldiers were also injured during the operation.
