The seven-day-long operation in the rugged mountainous terrain of Kashmir’s Anantnag seemed to be drawing to a close with officials on Tuesday confirming the deaths of two militants and one more soldier.
The deaths have taken the toll in the gunfight in the Gadole area of Kokernag to six. They include a colonel, a major and a deputy superintendent of police who fell to militant bullets on Wednesday.
Officials on Tuesday said they had recovered the body of the soldier, who was accompanying the three officers and was missing since Wednesday. The soldier has been identified as Sepoy Pradeep Singh of 19 Rashtriya Rifles from Punjab.
Kashmir police chief and additional director-general Vijay Kumar said they had recovered the body of Lashkar commander Uzair Khan, an electrician turned militant from Nagam village in Kokernag.
Khan, 28, had quietly joined militancy last year in a departure from the earlier trend where militants would announce their baptism to militancy through social media.
The ADG said the body of another militant had been spotted on the hill but had not been retrieved so far.
Kumar said the operation had not been called off as large stretches of the hill were yet to be searched for unexploded shells and possibly the body of another militant.
Sources said guns had fallen silent in the area and there was no exchange of fire on Tuesday.
Security forces are inching close to the purported cave-like structure where militants had taken refuge after going for the kill and are moving cautiously to avoid further casualties.
“We had reports of the involvement of two to three militants. We hope the body of the third is also found. The search is not complete. So far, we have recovered the body of LeT commander Uzair Khan,” Kumar told reporters.
“The search operation will continue. One more body of a militant has been sighted but not retrieved.… There is a big area which remains to be searched.”
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the gunfight had negated the official claims of normality.
“This tells you how much peace we have achieved. There is of course peace in and around Srinagar because they play golf here, sing with the Miss World, show you glimpses of G20. If you want to see the situation outside Srinagar, go to Kokernag, Uri and Rajouri,” he said.
Three gunfights raged in Jammu and Kashmir during the past week in Kokernag, Rajouri and Uri, claiming the lives of three officers, two jawans and six militants.
“When I was chief minister, I never saw such a situation in Rajouri. There is a revival of militancy in Pir Panchal (the Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu). The situation is not as good as they say. They are spreading lies and are not ready to accept the ground situation,” Omar said.
Officials said fresh searches were conducted in the Pir Panchal region on Tuesday against the backdrop of the suspected movement of militants.
