This Article is From Sep 23, 2009

J&K encounters: Major, 3 jawans killed

Srinagar: After recent reports of rising infiltrations from across the border, India's biggest fears were brought to fore when Kashmir was rocked by two separate gun-battles between terrorists and security forces.

In Bandipore, which is 40 km from Srinagar, an encounter began at 4 am on Wednesday morning. Here, two terrorists holed up inside a house, were firing indiscriminately at the security forces.

The battle went on all day and finally, the two Hizbul commanders, Passa and Mussa, were killed, but so was Army Major Suresh Suri and a jawan, Naik Kushal.

Just a few kilometres away, the armymen were fighting four more terrorists. Two militants were killed, but two others were still fighting. This encounter began on Monday evening.

Here too, the Army had to pay a lethal price as two jawans have been killed.

This summer, about 250 militants believed to have crossed the LoC into India. The number is almost 115 more than last year.

Off late militancy level in Kashmir had gone down, but increased infiltration is pushing militancy graph up again.
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