Jammu and Kashmir encounter ends, three militants killed

The terrorists were holed up  in Entrepreneurship Development Institute or EDI campus in Pampore area on the outskirts of Srinagar city.

Three Army para commandos, including two Captains, and three terrorists were killed during the encounter that started on Saturday.

“Encounter is  over with the death of three militants and the area will be cleared after retrieving the bodies of the militants”,  Bhavesh Chaudhary, Spokesperson of CRPF Kashmir, told IBNS over phone.

Major General Arvind Dutta, GoC, Victor Force confirmed that all three hardcore militants have been killed.

He said: "A lot of arms and and war-like ammunition have been recovered."

Calling the attackers as ' foreign militants', Dutta said steps are now being taken to find out the identity of the militants.

"They are likely to be belonging to a suicide squad," he said.

He said the sanitizing of the JKEDI (Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurial Development Institute) complex is currently going on.

The standoff started on Saturday after militants entered the JKEDI building.

Dutta said many civilians were evacuated from the building after terrorists entered it.

Meanwhile, the country paid homage to the Indian soldiers who were killed in the encounter.

Captain Tushar Mahajan, who, was killed at Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir while fighting terrorists, was laid to rest at his home town in Udhampur on Monday evening.

Captain Pawan Kumar, Captain Tushar Mahajan and Lance Naik Om Prakash of Special Force battalion 9 Para were killed in the encounter.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)