Srinagar
A day after the municipal poll in Jammu and Kashmir, two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, a policeman and a “civilian” were killed in a gunfight in Srinagar’s Fateh Kadal locality today.

Acting on a tip-off, security personnel launched a search operation on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday and cordoned off a four-storey building. “Two terrorists and their accomplice refused to come out and fired at a search party. Subsequently, they were killed,” the police claimed. “Police constable Kamal Kishore of Raesi in Jammu, who ventured inside to take on the militants, was also killed.”

The slain militants were identified as Mehraj-ud-Din Bangroo and Fahad Mushtaq Waza of Fateh Kadal locality. Rayees Ahmad, the son of building owner Habibullah Hanga, was also killed. “It is being ascertained if Rayees was providing logistics to the terrorists,” the police said.

Rayees’ family denied he was associated with the militants. “Past midnight, the security personnel knocked at our door. They took away the menfolk, including Rayees. At 6.40 am, our house caught fire and we jumped out of the windows,” said Ruksana, Rayees’ sister-in-law. “My father-in-law complained of chest pain and was rushed to hospital even as Rayees was taken away for a search operation. He was used as a human shield,” she alleged.