Two militants who tried to storm a CRPF camp in Srinagar’s Karan Nagar area were killed on Tuesday, ending a 32-hour gunbattle that also left a trooper dead and a policeman injured.

The operation to flush out the militants who took refuge in an under-construction building in the heart of the city was carried out by a Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force, police officials said.

The Army was not involved in the operation, they clarified.

The official said two bodies – along with weapons – have been recovered from the encounter site.

News agency PTI quoted Ravideep Sahi, IG-CRPF, Srinagar, saying that the forces recovered two AK-47 assault rifles and eight magazines from the site.

The gunbattle, which began yesterday morning, came two days after militants attacked an Army camp in Jammu’s Sunjuwan area, killing seven people, including six Army soldiers. Three militants were also killed in retaliation by the Army.

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, S P Pani said the militants who tried to attack the CRPF camp in Karan Nagar area early yesterday morning belonged to the Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) group.

“The materials we recovered from the site of the encounter suggest that the militants belonged to LeT. But the militants have not been identified yet and we are trying to ascertain their identity,” he told reporters at a joint press conference with CRPF officials.

Pani said it was a clean operation without collateral damage, adding that it continued for so long as the building where the terrorists were hiding was a five-storey structure.

Authorities had imposed restrictions Karan Nagar and adjoining areas  to stop people from converging near the encounter site.

(Pictures by Zargar Zahoor)