2 Pak soldiers killed

Hizbul ‘company commander’ shot

SRINAGAR, March 30 (PTI) — The security forces averted a major disaster when they defused two powerful bombs in Anantnag and Baramulla districts even as a government official was killed in a militancy-related incident, an official spokesman said here today.

He said the police neutralised an improvised explosive device (IED) fitted with a gas cylinder at Hasanpora-Bijbehara in Anantnag. Two detonators and a remote control device were recovered from the spot.

Militants had also planted an IED in a pressure cooker on the Sumbal-Hajan road in Baramulla yesterday. The bomb disposal squad rushed to the spot and neutralised it.

The body of a forest official, Mohammad Shafi Bhat, was recovered from Monghall in Anantnag today, the police fished out an unidentified body from the Dal Lake this afternoon.

Three militants including a self-styled ‘company commander’ of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Gulzar Ahmed, were killed, in separate encounters with the security forces at Kotabal-Kulgam in Anantnag and Rajouri districts, while the body of a militant was found in a nullah at Malipora-Kulgam in Anantnag.

Aijaz Ahmed Dar, who was critically injured by his captors on Friday succumbed to his injuries yesterday. The kidnapper had been identified.

Three persons were shot dead by militants at Khiber-Zakoora on the outskirts of Srinagar yesterday, the spokesman said.

The deputy publicity chief of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Zaffar Ahmad Bhat, was arrested in the Ganderbal area of Srinagar today along with some incriminating documents and video cassettes, a police spokesman said.

Zaffar admitted he had gone to Ganderbal on the instructions of the deputy chief of the Mujahideen to meet another militant, the spokesman said.

He was wanted in connection with militancy-related violence in Anantnag district.

2 Pak soldiers killed

SRINAGAR, March 30 (PTI) — Two Pakistani soldiers were killed as alert Indian troops foiled their attempt to capture a strategically important post at Siachen glacier in Ladakh in the wee hours, a Defence Ministry spokesman said tonight.

An Indian sentry spotted six Pakistani soldiers moving towards the post at an altitude of 5,430 metres around 2.30 a.m. He alerted the troops at the post and an encounter ensued.