Jammu and Kashmir: 2 more militants killed in Valley, including one who murdered civilian

Two local militants were killed in an encounter with security forces on Tuesday in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

The encounter broke out at Rajpora in the Awantipora area of Pulwama district late on Monday night after security forces launched an anti-militancy operation, a police official said.

Two local militants were killed in the gun battle. Two AK rifles and incriminating material were seized from the scene of the encounter, he said.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, Vijay Kumar said the slain duo were involved in killing civilians, including a government employee.

"Killed terrorists identified as Shahid Rather of Tral and Umar Yousuf of Shopian. Besides other terror crimes, terrorist Shahid was involved in the killing of a woman Mst Shakeela of Aripal and a govt employee/peon Javid Ahmed of Lurgam Tral," the IGP Kashmir tweeted.

This is the second such encounter in the last two days. One militant was killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in the Pulwama district on Monday.

In recent encounters, security forces have killed 26 foreign terrorists affiliated to terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad in Jammu and Kashmir during the first five months of the year, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar said.

Prior to that, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, as of May 21 this year, a total of 108 people were killed in Jammu and Kashmir due to the militancy, including 15 civilians, 15 security personnel and 78 militants.

(with inputs from PTI)