Anantnag, October 29

A militant was killed, shortly after he allegedly killed a non-local truck driver, in a gunfight with security forces on Monday night in the Bijbehara area of the district, the police said.

The body of the militant has been kept at a police facility in Anantnag, where several families from different parts of south Kashmir were called for its identification.“But so far he remains unidentified,” SSP Anantnag, Altaf Khan said.

The two incidents took place in the Kanelwan area of Bijbehara, which is also known as the ‘apple valley’ area in local parlance.A truck driver, Narayan Dutt, from the Katra area of Jammu, was shot by militants at about 8 pm on Monday night. This has been the fifth such incident here in south Kashmir since October 7. Five non-local truck drivers and a brick kiln worker from Bihar have been killed in these incidents.

The police confirmed Dutt’s killing half an hour later and maintained that the area was being combed by security forces.

On Tuesday morning the police claimed that a militant had been killed in a brief exchange of fire, not more than 200 metres from where Dutt was shot dead.

“We had two parties deployed on the main road in the area. Their response was timely and the militant was intercepted and killed in a gunfight,” Khan said.

Local sources said intense firing was heard in the area for several minutes after which the guns fell silent.

“The firing started at about 8 pm and continued for more than 10 minutes, before the guns fell silent,” the local sources said.

On Monday morning, clashes erupted in the area and several other parts of Anantnag district. However, no one was injured in the clashes.

Later in the day, an Army party was fired upon by militants in the Drubgam area of Pulwama district. The Army retaliated and after a brief exchange of fire the militants managed to flee the area.

“A cordon has been laid in the area and efforts to track down the militants are on,” a senior police official from Pulwama said. He said the situation was under control and no one was injured in the firing.