3 soldiers, civilian injured in Anantnag encounter

Srinagar, June 3: Three soldiers and a civilian were injured in an ongoing gunfight at Rishipora area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Friday.
“In the initial exchange of fire, three army personnel and one civilian got injured. All the injured were immediately airlifted to 92 base hospital Srinagar for treatment and are stated to be stable,” police said in a tweet.
The civilian has been identified as Mukhtar Ahmad Malik son of Ghulam Mohidin Malik.
Meanwhile, as per the last reports received here late in the night, the exchange of fire has stopped even as police and army strengthened the cordon and sealed all the escape routes. The operation was likely to resume early morning on Saturday unless there was any move by militants which prompts immediate action, the sources said.
The encounter had ensued after a joint team of Police and army’s 19RR launched a cordon and search operation in the area amid specific inputs about the presence of the militants there.
As the joint team of forces approached towards the suspected spot, the officials said that the hiding militants fired upon the forces, triggering off the gunfight. (GNS)