Militants ambush army patrol in Shopian; civilian dead, 2 soldiers injured

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 4

Hours after forces concluded a massive anti-militancy operation is south Kashmir's Shopian, militants on Thursday ambushed an Army patrol in the area, leaving two soldiers injured and a civilian dead.

Sources said an Army patrol was attacked at Killora by militants this evening when they were on way to their base after concluding the daylong operation. The attack took place at the area that was not combed during the operation.

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"The operation against terrorists is underway," Army spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia said. 

The critically injured civilian, who was driving the vehicle, later succumbed to injuries.

Earlier, security forces launched the anti-militancy operation at multiple places in south Kashmir’s Shopian district but their efforts were hampered by stone-pelting mobs.

Read more: Encounter breaks out in south Kashmir's Kulgam

South Kashmir has seen a spate of attacks on banks, especially in southern districts of Shopian and Pulwama this month.

The police official said a large number of security forces were involved in the search operations which started in the middle of the night.

However, the operations were hampered by small groups of people pelting the security forces with stones in these areas, the official said.

He said additional security force personnel had been rushed to the area to chase away the stone-pelters.

So far, no casualties have been reported in the clashes between stone-pelters and security forces, he said, adding that the operations were in progress.

Recently, videos of large groups of militants--in some cases as many as 30--have surfaced on social media, despite the ban imposed by authorities on 22 such sites and applications.

Security agencies believe these videos were shot in south Kashmir area, especially in Shopian district. With agencies