Pakistani terrorist planning attack on J&K highway killed
Srinagar: Security forces achieved a major success as a Pakistani terrorist planning an attack along the national highway in Jammu and Kashmir was killed in an encounter in Kulgam district, officials said Friday.
They said the overnight encounter began after two terrorists, who had positioned themselves in a building, started firing "indiscriminately" on a BSF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said the slain ultra, identified as Usman from Pakistan, was a "dreaded terrorist" active for the past six months.
"Around 3 pm (Thursday), terrorists fired upon the convoy of BSF on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway near Malpora Mir Bazar area of Kulgam. The fire was retaliated by an ROP (road opening party) of police and security forces," a police spokesman said. There were no injuries in the initial attack.
Police and Army reinforcements reached there immediately and cordoned off the area, the spokesperson said.
"The force party ensured not to give any chance to the terrorists to escape. The terrorists managed to took shelter in a nearby huge building. The holed-up terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the joint party of police/security forces which was retaliated, leading to an encounter," he said.
The IGP said there was a general input for the last one week that "terrorists were planning an attack on the national highway on Baramulla-Srinagar road or Qazigund-PanthaChowk".
"So, the police and security forces were ready. This shows how good the response of the security forces has been that there was retaliation and the militant was not allowed to flee," Kumar told reporters here. He said when the BSF convoy was coming, "two terrorists fired indiscriminately from a huge building, but there was no injury to us".
"Security forces cordoned off the area and the encounter ensued. GoC (general officer commanding of the Army's south Kashmir-based) Victor Force and I monitored the operation during the night. We used rocket launcher and a militant was neutralised during the night.
