Three terrorists have been gunned down in an encounter which broke out at around 2:30 am local time on Thursday in Srinagar, Kashmir.
A civilian woman from the area became caught in the crossfire and was shot to death; she has been identified as Kousar Reyaz.
A fire also erupted in the house where the terrorists were hiding. A fire engine was rushed to the spot to douse the blaze.
While encounters in Jammu and Kashmir’s rural areas break out sporadically, this was the fourth major encounter in Srinagar, the city which is the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Terrorist attacks on security forces in India-administered Kashmir, which has been a hotbed of militants since 1989, have seen an uptick after the New Delhi government revoked the quasi-autonomous status of the erstwhile state in August 2019 and split it into two territories: Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The federal government admitted in Parliament in August 2019 that over 40,000 people have lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir due to the ongoing insurgency.
So far this year there have been 97 militant attacks in which 44 security personnel and 21 civilians were killed. Some 174 militants have also been eliminated.