SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF personnel foiled a possible terror strike today killing three Lashker-e-Taiba militants in the outskirts of the city this morning after a four-hour-long operation, officials said.
Four security personnel were injured in the gunfight but all of them are stated to be stable.
The militants, according to the police, were planning to carry out the strike ahead May 7, when state government offices were to reopen in Srinagar after shifting from Jammu, the winter capital of the state.
The operation was launched in the wee hours at Chattabal, in the outskirts of the city, when personnel of Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police and Quick Action Team (QAT) of the CRPF cordoned off an under-construction building in the area following an input that three militants were holed up inside the premises.
"Our first aim was to ensure that civilians around the area were safe and after ensuring that, police and CRPF personnel moved into the building and were fired upon by the terrorists holed up there," Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range) Swayam Prakash Pani said here after the operation.
The gunfire was effectively replied and in the ensuing operations, all the three militants were killed, he said, adding four security personnel were injured in the incident. All of them are were stable now.
The operation was swift and over in four hours with no collateral damage, Pani said, adding "On the basis of the materials recovered from the site, it was found that the terrorists belonged to the outlawed Lashker-e-Taiba."
One of the three militants was identified as Fayyaz Ahmed Hammal, who has been active for past one year.
Officials said he is an illiterate, about 30 years of age and a resident of Khanka-e-Mohalla in downtown of the city. He was involved in some cases related to weapon snatching and terrorising people.
Police officials believe that Hammal, who was earlier working at a printing press and an active stone pelter, had been tasked to bring the two other militants, believed to be Pakistanis, to the city for carrying out an attack.
The other two, according to doctors, were suffering from gangrene, a disease which is a result of frosbite that militants get while infiltrating from across the region in extreme cold conditions.
Besides three AK rifles, a huge quantity of ammunition, including five magazines each, and a medical kit were recovered from the militants, police said.
Tension mounted in the city over the death of a man as the locals alleged that he was shot dead by the security forces.
However, the post-mortem report said the man was hit by a speeding vehicle and there was no bullet injury, police said.
"A man, identified as Adil Ahmad Yadoo, was brought to the SMHS hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead. According to the medical bulletin, he died in a road accident at Noorbagh," a police spokesman said, adding that the place was nearly four to five km away from the encounter site.
"In this regard a case under relevant sections of law has been registered and proceedings have been initiated against the police driver and the vehicle seized," a police spokesman said.
