Security forces kill two LeT militants in Pulwama, Kashmir

India Gazette (ANI) Saturday 4th February, 2012

Security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir killed two members of Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit on Saturday.

The militants identified as Aashiq Hussain Shah and Mudasir were killed in the state's Pulwama District, in a joint operation, undertaken by the state police and security personnel belonging to the 12 sector Rashtriya Rifles (RR).

Brigadier Shivander Singh, Commander, 12 sector Rashtriya Rifles (RR) said that the militants were actively working towards disrupting the peace in the state.

"Two militants from LeT group were killed in the search operation were Aashiq Hussain Shah, who belongs to Panchgaon, and came to Kashmir in 2010 and the second one is Mudasir who was actively working in the outfit for three years," said Singh.

He further said they undertook the operation against the militants after they got tip-off about their hideout on Friday.

"When we got the information about the militant hideout yersterday, in this village. The security parties arrived here and were fired upon by the militants. We restricted firing from our end keeping in mind the safety of the civilians and launched an offensive in the morning after we moved the civilians to a safe area," said Singh.

According to media reports, the security officials seized two AK 47 rifles, two grenades, two mobile phones and 120 rounds of AK ammunition from the militant hideout.

Infiltration has been a major point of contention between India and Pakistan, and the Army has claimed that the militants continued to operate despite a ceasefire between the two armies and a three-metre-high barbed wire security fence along most of the 742-kilometre-long Line of Control (LoC).

India accuses Pakistan of training militants in its part of Kashmir and helps them infiltrate to aide insurgency in the disputed Himalayan region.

Pakistan says it only extends moral and diplomatic support to what it calls an independence struggle by Kashmiris. (ANI)