SRINAGAR: Five militants have been killed in the encounter which raged between separatist guerrillas and security forces in north Kashmir’s Sopore area since late last night, police say, terming it as a major achievement against militancy in the valley.
Although the militants killed today are yet to be identified, a police spokesperson hinted that they belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
Inspector General of Police, SM Sahai said the killings have rendered a serious blow to militancy in the valley’s northern area.
“It is a recent group that moved from North Kashmir, as LeT was depleted in Sopore. The elimination of these militants [is] a major success in the fight against militancy,” Sahai told reporters.
There has been a surge in gunbattles over a period of recent months in the valley, where authorities say a 23-year-old armed conflict is on its lowest ebb eversince it erupted in 1989.
At least eight militants have died in three gunfights in the past five days.
Kashmir’s top militant commander Syed Salahuddin, who heads an amalgam of several militant outfits, recently warned the region’s separatist leadership not to mislead people by speaking too much about “peaceful struggle”.
He instead said only arms will help solve the Kashmir issue.
“They (separatist leaders) know it more than us that military occupations have never ended with peaceful struggles nor does it seem to end like that in future.”
Moderate separatists headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq are right now on a visit to Pakistan to meet with the leadership in search for fresh solutions to the Kashmir issue, which has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan for more than six decades now.
Salahuddin said the occupation, the term used by the separatists for the Army’s presence in the state, would not merely end by “political movements, seminars and conferences”.
He cited the examples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam, saying Americans left these place because of armed struggles.
