M A I N   N E W S

Four killed in IED blast
Probe ordered into youth’s killing

Srinagar, March 25
Thirteen persons, including a foreign mercenary and two policemen, were killed as a powerful blast destroyed a residential house in Jammu and Kashmir since last night, official sources said today.

Two militants and two members of a family were killed and their house completely destroyed when a powerful improvised explosive device (IED), being prepared by the militants, exploded due to mishandling at village Safapora in Baramula district last night, an official spokesman said.

Army and Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel, who immediately reached the site, also recovered an AK assault rifle, two pistols, 5 kg of explosives and some ammunition from the debris of the house, he added.

A foreign mercenary, belonging to the Muslim Jaanbaz Force (MJF) was killed in an encounter with Army troops in the Dewather-Singhpura area in Doda district.

An AK rifle, 60 rounds, three magazines and a wireless were recovered from the slain militant, he said.

The body of a surrendered militant, Firdous Ahmad Bhat was recovered from the Doonikhud area of Dalgate in the heart of Srinagar today, the spokesman said adding Bhat, a resident of Muchwara, had surrendered in 1996.

Another surrendered militant, Nazir Ahmad, was killed by militants at Sursyar in Badgam district.

The police recovered five bullet-riddled bodies late last night including that of a policeman and two middle-aged men from river Chenab near the Chill area in Doda district, of a teenaged girl from Surankote in Poonch district and that of a youth, who had been missing for last four days, from the Kralikhud area of Srinagar, he said.

Militants killed a woman in her house in Pamhead village in Poonch late last night, he added.

Meanwhile, curfew was relaxed in Baramula and Poonch towns of Jammu and Kashmir on the third day on Sunday even as authorities ordered a magisterial probe into the killing of a youth at Baramula during a demonstration on Friday.

The curfew was clamped in the border towns of Baramula and Poonch on Friday following violent protests against the alleged desecration of Koran, which led to the killing of a youth allegedly due to the CRPF firing at Baramula.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, who visited Baramula today, ordered a magisterial inquiry into Friday’s shooting episode.

Lone also held a high-level meeting with senior police and district authorities in the town. PTI