Jammu, Nov 10 (IANS) Army troops have killed two militants, one of them a Pakistan-trained top Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) commander, in an operation in the Garol valley of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said Monday.
Based on specific intelligence inputs, troops had laid multiple ambushes in the higher reaches of the Garol valley, which links south Kashmir to Kishtwar district.
Col. D.K. Kachari, army spokesman at the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur, said: 'The soldiers were carrying out surveillance of the designated areas and came in contact with the terrorists, which led to an exchange of fire Sunday evening.'
He said that after a gun battle of about 30 minutes, the soldiers recovered the bodies of two militants.
'One of the slain terrorists was identified as 27-year-old Mohammad Rafiq alias Irfan, while the identity of the second is being ascertained,' Kachari said.
The army spokesman said that Irfan was involved in the killing of five personnel of the Border Roads Organisation's Beacon project, including Lt. Col. Ajay Verma, in June 2008.
'He was a top ranking Pakistan trained terrorist of Harkat-Ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) and had been active since 2001,' Kachari said.
He added that two AK-47 magazines, 120 rounds of AK-47 ammunition and four Chinese grenades were seized from the site of the gun battle.
'With the elimination of these two militants, the security forces have achieved a major breakthrough in preventing terror attacks in the run up to the forthcoming election in the state,' the spokesman said.
The army had killed seven militants in two different incidents in the Jammu region Saturday.
Security forces have tightened vigil in the border areas to prevent infiltration of militants from Pakistan ahead of the assembly polls. Several militant and separatist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir have called for boycott of the elections.
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