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| India-Pakistan |
| Three gunnies iced in Doda shootout... |
| 2002-07-18 |
| Three militants, including two foreign mercenaries, were killed and nine security personnel injured in an encounter on Thursday after the Bad Guys holed up in a house in Banihal town of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir. Inspector General of Police P L Gupta said that the militants took shelter in a three-storey house near a mosque and fired from there on the security forces who had cordoned off the area following a tip-off. "You'll never take us alive, coppers!" "Hokay." He said that the militants were not holed up in the mosque as had appeared initially. "One false move and the holy man... uh, forget it." In the gunbattle, three militants were killed, Gupta said, adding two of them had been identified as Abu Dujana of Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) and Mohammad Idris of Jaish-e-Mohammad. During the exchange of fire, the house of Mohammad Anwar Teli, a retired assistant commissioner and now associated with the ruling National Conference, where militants had been hiding, caught fire, Gupta said, adding four shops were also gutted in the blaze. "Goddammit! Look at this mess! Who's gonna clean up this mess? Take yer shootouts down the street, dammit! They're up til all hours of the night, playing the stereo, screaming at each other...!" Three policemen and six other security men, including a Major and a Captain, sustained injuries in the encounter. The encounter stalled movement of traffic on Jammu-Srinagar national highway for several hours but resumed after the standoff came to an end allowing movement of Amarnath pilgrims. Two of the injured had been airlifted to the military hospital at Udhampur in a serious condition, Gupta said. "Uh... Honey? Hey, look, I'll be home a little late. I'm stalled in traffic... Yeah. They're having a shootout... And some guy's house is on fire... And there are helicopters landing... Uhuh. And corpses... Yeah. I think the ice cream's gonna be melted before I get there..." Mop up was continuing and bodies of some more militants were expected to be recovered from under the debris, official sources said, adding earlier reports had suggested that the number of holed up militants was seven. "Yeah, Honey... Dead guys. Somebody said there were seven of them... Anybody we know? I don't think so... Oh. Wait! There's Mohammad Idris... Part of him, anyway..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |