A fierce encounter is on in Kashmir's Anantnag district between securityforces and some militants belonging to Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba outfit,hiding in Jamia mosque in Shangus.
One Ikhwani (surrendered militant) working with the security forces wasreported to have been killed in the fighting that began around 6 pm (IST) onSunday while 3 militants have so far been killed by the security forces whotightened their siege and snapped water and power supplies to the place ofworship in their bid to make them surrender, as the ultras turned down repeated requests forsurrender, official sources in Srinagar said.
Bodies of the three militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit were thrown out of the mosque premises
by their comrades still perched inside, Inspector General of Police Ashok Bhanconfirmed to reporters a short while ago in Srinagar.
The army has taken several measures, including illuminating the entire area, to prevent the militants' escape
from the mosque under the cover of darkness, officials said.
Giving details of the incident, the sources said the militants took shelter at the mosque after army and special
operation group of local police launched a joint operation following reports of presence of about 20LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen in the area. The mosque where the militants have takenrefuge is located in Kokernag, 70 kilometres from Srinagar.
While other militants escaped after an initial encounter with security forces, aboutfive to seven militants took shelter in the mosque and locked it from inside. They resorted to heavyfiring on the approaching troops, the sources said.
They stopped firing late Sunday night only to resume it on Monday morning, itwas reported. Although the firing was intermittent throughout the day today, hiding militants made no attempt to escape fromthe besieged mosque, the sources said. The militants were repeatedly asked to surrender andseveral groups of locals were deputed to motivate them to give up their arms.
When all efforts to make them surrender proved unsuccessful, army this evening snapped water and power
supply to the mosque to force the militants to come out. The security forces have laid a three-tier cordon
around the mosque to foil any attempt by the militants to escape, the sources said.
The Rashtriya Rifles and the Special Operations Group of the police havesurrounded the mosque and say they have sealed off the area.The sources ruled out the possibility of storming themosque and said security forces were exercising maximum restraint to maintain the sanctity of the place ofworship, but said a portion of the bathroom annexe of the shrine was damaged inthe exchange of fire.
Precautionary measures have been taken to foil any attempt by other militants to rescue the ultras by attacking
the security forces from outside the cordoned off areas, the sources said.
As the stand-off continued with militants refusing to surrender, the securityforces have taken over two dozen houses around the mosque in a bid to preventtheir escape, they said, while unconfirmed reports mention that Black Catcommandos belonging to NSG have been rushed to Shangus to try and flush out themilitants.
LeT spokesman Abu Usma telephoned local news organisations to claimresponsibility and alleged that a portion of the mosque was damaged due to riflegrenade attack by the security forces.
This is the second incident of its kind in south Kashmir within a fortnight. OnMay 30, three militants of Lashker-e-Toiba remained holed up for nearly 20 hours and werefinally provided safe passage to avoid any damage to the mosque. However, LeThad later claimed that two of its activists were holed up in the Shopian mosque andhad won their freedom after breaking the cordon.
Stepped-up offensive
In a separate incident, a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants of a suicide squadtonight stormed a police camp in south Kashmir injuring a sub inspector,official sources here said.
They said the militants forced their way into the camp of special task force(STF) at Sohpian in Phulwama district, 52km from Srinagar.
The attack left a sub inspector wounded and set off a fierce encounter thatcontinued till late into the evening, the sources said.
