Bandipora encounter: 3 more militants killed, toll 5

Srinagar, Sep 21: Three more militants were killed with government forces as the 40-hour long gunfight at Sumlar forests of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district ended on Friday late afternoon.
SSP Bandipora Zulfikar Azad said that three more militants were killed in the operation.
He said that bodies of all the slain militants were recovered along with as many weapons. Besides, the officer said that a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and incriminating material was recovered from the site of encounter.
With the killings, the overall death toll of militants reached five.
Yesterday, two militants were killed in the initial exchange of gunfight and body of one of them had been retrieved immediately while the body of another one was lying in the area from yesterday and was retrieved on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, a police spokesman in a statement issued here said that slain were affiliated with LeT outfit.
“Apparently the slain militants were part of a freshly infiltrated group,” the spokesman said.
Police have registered a case and investigation is going on, the spokesman said.
The gunfight broke out after Army’s 14 RR, SOG of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Shukbabun area of Sumlar village on Thursday and ended today late in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Bandipora has ordered the closure of all Educational Institutions including Degree Colleges and schools in the north Kashmir District tomorrow (September 22).