SRINAGAR: Four Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer and a militant, were killed in a gunfight at Neldora village in south Kashmir on Saturday.

In a separate incident at Bandipora, two Army men and a special police officer (SPO) were killed and two others injured.

Acting on a tip-off about militants hiding at Neldora in Pulwama district, troops of 62 Rashtriya Rifles cordoned off the village, police sources told The Hindu . The militants opened fire on the troops and the operation was suspended till dawn.

When shooting commenced early on Saturday morning, four Army personnel were seriously injured. Two of them died on the spot and the others in the hospital. Among those killed was JCO Ishwar Dass. Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Siah Ahmad was also killed in the gunbattle. Sources said the militants managed to escape, and that the Army extended the cordon to Shal Latoo village.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. A.K. Mathur said that the Army personnel were killed because the militants took advantage of the presence of civilians. "We observed restraint as we wanted to avoid collateral damage," he said, confirming the deaths of the four soldiers.

LeT spokesman Abdullah Gaznavi told a local news agency that all eight militants present in the village "managed to come out safely after inflicting heavy casualties on the Army."

In the Bandipora encounter two Army men and a special police officer were killed. Lt. Col. Mathur said the personnel were killed when militants hiding in a house shot them as they entered it to conduct searches. SPO Farooq Ahmad, working with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, was also killed. A civilian was injured. The gunfight was continuing when last reports came in and a good number of militants are reportedly involved in it.

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