Srinagar, Dec. 8: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed on Thursday after a six-hour gunfight with security forces in Kashmir, triggering widespread protests across the south of the valley.
Mobile phone and internet services were suspended in parts of south Kashmir to prevent rumours and details of the counter-insurgency operation through social media.
Police said the slain militants were all Kashmiris and apparently belonged to south Kashmir.
“Three local militants of LeT have been killed. But a search operation is still going on,” a police officer said.
As news of the killings spread, clashes erupted between security forces and protesters who tried to march towards the gunfight site in Arwani village of Anantnag, some 40 km south of here.
Clashes between stone-pelting protesters and security forces also erupted at various other places in south Kashmir.
Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Dujana, one of the most wanted militants in the state, was earlier rumoured to be among the gunmen holed up in a house where the militants were holed up.
There were conflicting reports about Dujana. Locals said he escaped from the hideout in Arwani which lies close to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s ancestral Bijbehara town.
But security officials neither confirmed nor denied if he was among the militants trapped since Wednesday night.
Police said security forces surrounded the village late on Wednesday following a tip off about the presence of militants inside the hideout.
“As security forces tightened the cordon, some gunshots were heard. But after that there was no exchange of fire,” the officer said. He said the gunfight intensified in the morning after militants started firing at the security forces.
Mobile phone and internet services were suspended in south Kashmir Anantnag district as the gunfight raged.
Although authorities did not formally confirm that the mobile phone operations were suspended, but authoritative sources told IANS the action had been taken to check spread of rumours in the area.
Kashmir on edge: Civilian, three militants killed in fresh violence
A civilian was killed in one of the clashes that erupted between protesters and security forces in parts of Kashmir on Thursday following the death of three militants in a shootout in the south of the valley that was limping to normalcy after months of a bloody unrest since July.
The state police said Arif Amin Shah of Sangam village in south Kashmir was killed after a mob threw stones at security forces in a neighbourhood, some distance away from a village where three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in a six-hour gunfight.
Some villagers tried to march towards the shootout site in Arwani village, some 40 km from here, in Kulgam district. They threw stones at police contingents and paramilitary troopers.
The police said Shah was hit by a stray bullet but residents alleged he was killed in firing by the security forces. At least a dozen civilians were also injured. One of them was critical, the locals said.
Clashes also erupted at a dozen places in Anantnag and Kulgam -- the worst hit south Kashmir districts in the unrest triggered by the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
In the wake of the unrest since then, some 100 persons died in the months of daily protests and shutdown, which was spearheaded by separatist leaders.
The situation in the valley had just started easing. Separatists on Wednesday relaxed for three days -- Saturday, Sunday and Monday -- their weekly protest calendar.
But the protests in south Kashmir on Thursday brought back the memories of the violent days after Wani’s killing.
Mobile phone and internet services were suspended in parts of south Kashmir to prevent rumours and leaking of details of the counter-insurgency operation through social media.
Although authorities did not formally confirm that the mobile phone operations were suspended, sources told IANS the action had been taken to check spread of rumours in the area.
