Militans, Army exchange fire in Bandipora

Security forces and militants exchanged fire briefly on Thursday night in north Kashmir’s Bandipora, the second such incident since the Centre declared to halt operations during Ramzan in Kashmir two days ago.

Preliminary reports suggest the incident took place around 1:30 a.m. near Bonikhan Mohalla Hajin, Bandipora. A police official said the Army’s 13 Rashrtiya Rifles patrolling apparently “came under the fire”. The Army retaliated and the area was cordoned off later. No casualty was reported.

The police and the Army issued no statement on the details of the firing incident.

The incident took place a day after a civilian was killed by the militants in the area, said the police. The victim, Hilal Ahmad Parray from Bandipora’s Hajin, was abducted and killed in a plant nursery. “Three to four Pakistan-based militants assisted by a local militant Saleem Parray affiliated with the outlawed militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba forcefully abducted Parray,” the police claimed.

Since the start of the unilateral halting of operations against militants in J&K, three major incidents of militancy have occurred, which include an exchange of fire in Shopian on Wednesday afternoon and stealing of three weapons from a police post in Srinagar’s Dalgate area on Thursday evening.