Srinagar: Militancy-infested south Kashmir witnesses a series of clashes between holed up militants and security forces on Saturday, leaving, at least, two suspected militants dead.

While two militants were killed in an encounter in a remote village of Kulgam district, the fate of those trapped in three other areas after the joint teams of the Army, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid siege to these to conduct searches is not known.

The officials said that the SOG together with the Army’s 19 Rashtriya Rifles and 18th Battalion of the CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in Kulgam’s Nipora Zadoora village at dawn following specific input about the presence of militants.

“During the search operation, the terrorists were given opportunity to surrender.

They, however, responded by opening fire and hurling grenades upon the joint search party, which was retaliated, leading to an encounter in which both of them were killed,” a police spokesman here said.

Simultaneously or soon after the clash in Kulgam, the security forces engaged militants also at Maldera in neighbouring Shopian, Lallan in Anantnag and Tral in Pulwama districts. A report from Shopian said that after a brief exchange of fire with security forces, the militants moved into a cluster of residential houses at Maldera, prompting the authorities to rush in reinforcements to flush them out dead or alive.

Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said that two militants were killed in the joint operation launched at Lallan early Saturday. “The operation is in progress,” he said. However, neither the J&K police nor any other source confirmed it.

The police sources said that militants who had been trapped in a village of Tral during a search operation earlier may have escaped.

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