Two killed ultras turn out to be +ve

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 5

Two militants killed in an encounter in the Kashmir valley have turned out positive for Covid-19.

The samples of the two were taken during the medico-legal formalities and their reports came back positive today, a police spokesman said.

The two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, one of them identified as foreign national Ali Bhai, alias Hyder, were killed and three soldiers injured in a gunfight in the

Arah area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday.

The spokesman said the bodies would be buried as per the Covid-19 protocol at Baramulla in north Kashmir. As many as 90 militants have been killed in gunfights since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the security forces averted a major tragedy in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district with the recovery of an Improvised ExplosiveDevice close to a location where a low-intensity blast left a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) man injured. The blast took place around 7.30 am inside an orchard at Gangoo when a joint checkpoint of the police and the Central Reserve Police Force was being set up.

“During a search, another Improvised ExplosiveDevice planted 20 metres from the spot was recovered. It was later defused by the bomb disposal squad,” a police officer said.