Army captain injured in Kashmir gunfight

SRINAGAR - A captain of the counter insurgency Rashtriya Rifles was injured Tuesday evening in a fierce gunfight with a group of separatist guerrillas holed up in a house in north Kashmir’s Sopore town.

The gunfight erupted as troops of 22 Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police jointly surrounded a house in Sopore on specific information about the presence of heavily armed militants hiding in it, a senior police officer said.

“The holed up militants were challenged to surrender, upon which they opened indiscriminate fire at the surrounding security forces during which an army captain was injured,” the officer said.

He said the officer was immediately shifted to hospital for treatment.

“The gunfight is on and more reinforcements have been rushed there. Security forces are busy searching the locality,” he added.

Sopore is about 55 km from here.