As the security forces tightened the cordon, terrorists fired at them. (File)
A CRPF personnel was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district today. The encounter started after the security forces launched a joint operation at Bargam village last night. The forces had information on the presence of three terrorists hiding in a house in the village. In the gunfight, a jawan lost his life as the terrorists escaped. Two residential houses were damaged in the operation. Fire tenders were rushed to control fire after a single story house where terrorists were hiding was targeted with incendiary bombs.
The gunfight broke out between the forces and the holed-up terrorists during a cordon and search operation in the area launched by the Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group of state police and the Central Reserve Police Force. As the security forces tightened the cordon, the terrorists fired at them triggering the encounter. Official sources say the fleeing terrorists also took away the rifle of the fallen CRPF jawan.
Last week, in an encounter in
Shopian, five terrorists including an assistant professor of the Sociology department of Kashmir University, Mohammad Rafi Bhat, were killed. Bhat had gone missing just two days before the encounter. In the ensuing protests, five civilians were also killed.
A senior police officer of Shopian district, Shalinder Mishra, asked the terrorists holed up inside a house -- including Hizbul Mujahideen's Saddam Padder, once close to Burhan Wani -- to surrender, police had said.
A doctorate in Sociology, Bhat had cleared the University Grants Commission's Junior Research Fellowship. He had done research on globalisation and emerging trends in consumerism, a comparative study of rural and urban Kashmir.