Kupwara, 22 March: Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, SP Pani on Thursday said the militants killed in a gunfight with the forces in Halmatpora forests in frontier district of Kupwara were foreigners “It was a very difficult operation in view of thick vegetation and open area,” he said, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of wreath-laying ceremony of policemen killed in the two-day gunfight.
He said all the five militants killed in the gunfight were foreigners. “On the basis of material recovered from the site of the gunfight, it looks the slain militants were associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit,” he said that the operation is at “controlling stage” and that searches are underway at some places. Five militants, three army men and two policemen were killed in the gunfight that raged for two hours in Halmatpora forests.