J&K Minister's house attacked

J&K Minister's house attacked
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

SRINAGAR, FEB 11: Militants attacked with grenades the house of state Law Minister P L Handoo in Jammu and Kashmir, where nine people, including four ultras and two special police officers (spos), were killed, since yesterday.

A group of unidentified militants fired indiscriminately and lobbed grenades at the heavily-guarded house of the Law Minister at Janglat Mandi area in Anantnag district in South Kashmir last evening, official sources said.

CRPF personnel guarding the house returned the fire and repulsed the attack. Two auto-drivers were injured in the crossfire, they said.

At the time of the attack, Handoo and his family were away in Jammu, the winter-capital from where the state government is functioning now.

Meanwhile, three militants of Al-Bader outfit, including a Pakistani national, Mohammad Safdar Awan, were killed by security forces in an encounter in Pathan Peer of Poonch district last night, a police spokesman said. Security forces shot dead another ultra at Budlijoda-Thathri in Doda district.

Militants shot dead an SPO Khurshid Ahmad Shah inside his house at Maminder of Pulwama district early today. A lady SPO Gosia Akhter, who was critically-injured in a militant attack in Pulwama district town yesterday, succumbed in the hospital.

Militants gunned down one Gulshan at village Balyas in Doda district last night.

Army recovered two bodies from Chopran forest in Kupwara district last night, he said. They were believed to have been killed during an encounter between militants and the army in the area earlier in the day. It was not immediately known whether the deceased were militants or civilians.