A police officer and two suspected militants were killed in Jammu and Kashmir during a fierce 15-hour gunfight overnight, an official said yesterday, triggering clashes between protesters and government forces.
The firefight erupted late Saturday when soldiers and counter-insurgency police, acting on a tip-off, surrounded a home believed to be occupied by militants in southern Nazneenpora village, in Tral some 40km south of Srinagar
Soldiers detonated explosives during the siege, which stretched into the early hours as both sides exchanged heavy gunfire.
“Two militants were killed in the encounter. We also lost a boy of SOG,” Director General of Police S P Vaid said, referring to the slain officer from the Special Operations Group.
A Major was also critically wounded in the battle, an army officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the press.
Defying orders to stay indoors as the skirmish escalated, hundreds of villagers descended on the scene, throwing rocks at government forces in a bid to aid the besieged militants, a police officer said.
Smoke and dust billows from the residential house in which suspected militants were holed up during a gunfight.
