Five militants, including a foreigner, were killed during a gun battle against the security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir Thursday. This is the second encounter between the militants and the security forces in the last 24 hours in the Kashmir Valley.

An Army spokesperson said that the five militants were killed in the forested Kohrut area of the district. The encounter had started early Thursday morning.

“Based on specific joint intelligence of the army and the police about presence of militants in a hideout in the upper reaches of Kohrut, a joint operation was launched by the Rashtriya Rifles and the Special Operations Group, resulting in killing of five militants,” he said.

The Army official said that three AK-47 rifles, one SLR, one chinese pistol, and magazines were recovered from the encounter site. “Out of five militants, four were locals and one was a foreigner.”

DIG (South Kashmir) Alok Kumar told The Indian Express that two of the slain militants belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, while the other three were Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives.

“The militants have been identified as, Shakeel Ahmad from Pakherpora in Budgam, Tahir from Aglar in Pulwama, Parvaiz from Batamuran Shopian, Ishfaq from Arwani Bijbehra and Toib, a foreign national,” he said.

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