J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Militants shoot 2 cops in Srinagar
Two top Al Fateh men arrested
Tribune News Service and agencies

SRINAGAR, Feb 8 — Militants shot dead two police personnel, including an ASI here this afternoon, while six militants were killed in various parts of the state since last evening. The security forces also arrested two top militants of Al-Fateh, believed to be involved in recent attacks here and in the Tangmarg area.

Unidentified militants shot dead two police personnel, including ASI, Assadullah and constable Bilal Ahmad on the outskirts of the city this afternoon. A police spokesman said the militants shot dead the two police personnnel near the Parimpora branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank at 2.15 p.m. Soon after the attack, the security forces cordoned off the area to nab the culprits.

Seven policemen were killed at five places in the Lal Chowk area on December 13. The killings were made within minutes simultaneously at different places in the Lal Chowk and Batamaloo areas. This has led to more precautions by the state police personnel who have been provided with bullet proof jackets.

A defence spokesman said here that troops engaged holed up militants during a "seek and destroy" operation in the Tanawala area this afternoon and the two-hour-long gunfight left two ultras dead and one injured.

In another encounter, troops gunned down a militant in the Chitti Bhatti area of Rajouri district this morning.

A pistol, one magazine, 16 kg of explosives, 26 rifle, grenades, besides Indian currency worth Rs 1000 and Rs 55 in Pakistani currency were recovered from the spot.

A militant, who infiltrated into the Akhnoor area of Jammu district, was killed by the troops in the Ansuie area after a brief gunfight this morning. One AK rifle, one magazine, two IEDs and a rifle grenade were seized from him.

Two militants, believed to be foreign mercenaries, were killed in a gunbattle with the Army in Gaichta-Dudsanbala village of Poonch district.

Militants shot at and seriously wounded a counter-insurgent Fayaz Ahmed of the Ikhwan outfit at Khrew in Pulwama district.

Two hardcore militants belonging to pro-Pakistan Al Fateh outfit were arrested by the BSF in a swift operation.

The militants, indentified as Mehraj-ud-Din Lone alias Farhad and Irfan Ahmed Bhut alias Mufi, were nabbed from the Karan Nagar locality of Srinagar where they had come to chalk out a plan to carry out attacks on the security forces, a BSF spokesman said.

The operation was conducted by the BSF intelligence wing which had gathered specific information that some militants of Al Fateh had planned to visit Karan Nagar to give final shape to their plan to launch attacks on the security forces camping in the area.

The suspected hideout of the outfit was monitored round-the-clock and finally the militants were apprehended today in a swift operation.

The questioning of the militants revealed their involvement in a large number of militancy-related incidents including grenade and landmine blasts in the Srinagar and Tangmarg area during the past couple of months.

Lone, a resident of the Tangmarg area, told his interrogators that he had received arms training for three months in PoK during his nine-month stay in Pakistan from September 1998 to June 1999.

He was given an AK assault rifle with four magazines, 120 rounds of ammunition, a pistol and two grenades on his return to Kashmir. He sneaked back into the valley via the Handwara area in the Kupwara sector.

Irfan, a resident of the Qalamdanpora area of Srinagar, was trained in handling of arms and explosives and his arrest led to the seizure of some incriminating material from his hideout.

With the arrest of the two militants, the spokesman said, the total number of militants of the outfit arrested by the BSF since October last year had gone up to 27.