4 militants, 3 soldiers, one civilian among 10 killed in 24 hours across Kashmir

Srinagar: An army major, two soldiers, a civilian, and four militants including top Jaish-e-Muhammad commander and another militant whose vehicle was used in the deadly suicide attack on February 14 that left 40 CRPF men dead.
Two security forces personnel also shot dead themselves with the service riffles taking the total number of slain to ten in 24 hours.
In the Achabal area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, an unidentified militant was killed while as Army suffered a major causality in the form of a Major. Police said that the militant remained unidentified and was a foreigner and part of Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit. “He was a well-trained militant,” a police officer said. The body of a civilian was also found near the encounter spot.
Soon after the encounter, militants blew up an Army vehicle at Arihal area of Pulwama with a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in which several soldiers’ sustained injuries who were evacuated to army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar where two of the injured soldiers succumbed to their injuries on Tuesday morning.
In another encounter at Marhama, Anantnag on Tuesday morning, the security agencies claimed to have achieved a major breakthrough by killing two militants including the one whose vehicle was used in the February 14, deadly Lethpora attack, that left 40 CRPF men dead and dozens injured. A soldier was also killed in the encounter, police said.
Talking to a selected group of reporters here, DGP Dilbagh Singh said that the two militants Towseef Ahmed Bhat and Sajad Ahmed Bhat. “Towseef was wanted and was a district commander of Jaish for Anantnag and he was the one who had brought Sajad into Jaish fold. With the killing of these men, Jaish has suffered a dent,” he said.
Meanwhile, two security forces personnel also shot dead themselves with their service riffles. A soldier shot himself dead at army camp in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district and he was identified as Chotu Kumar.
In another incident of similar nature, BSF man Constable Rajendera Minj who shot himself dead with his service riffle at Singhpora, Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
In the two major encounters and the IED blast carried out by militants, security agencies suffered heavy losses in its anti-militancy operations. An army major and three soldiers died in an encounter and the IED attack carried out by militants in south Kashmir even as Jaish outfit also bore the brunt by losing its most wanted men.