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Thirteen militants and a National Conference leader were among 20 people killed and three army soldiers wounded in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, where security forces busted two militant hideouts seizing a huge cache of arms and explosives since Thursday evening.
National Conference block president Ghulam Rasool Bhat was shot dead by militants at his house at Wadipora in Kupwara district on Friday afternoon, a police spokesman said.
Bhat was working in his fields when the militants struck, he said.
Eight foreign militants, including two top self-styled commanders of Al-Badr outfit, were killed in separate gunbattles with security forces in Bandipora and Panzla areas of Baramulla district.
Three army personnel, including a Captain, were wounded in the gunfights which took place overnight.
The slain Al-Badr ultras were identified as Waqar alias Nayeemullah and Sikander Gul alias Sheira working as 'divisional' and 'battalion' commanders of the outfit in the valley. Both hailed from Pakistan, the spokesman said.
Five militants, all Pakistanis, were killed in retaliatory fire by security forces on two groups of Hizbul Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen activists at Kandi and Hafrada forest in Kupwara.
The spokesman said the militants abducted four persons at Bari Behak in Poonch district where they had gone for grazing cattle, adding their whereabouts were still not known.
Militants kidnapped and shot dead one Nazir Ahmad in Cherote forest area in Doda. Militants also killed a person each in Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri districts, the spokesman said, adding the ultras set ablaze four houses at Mahore in Udhampur.
Security forces smashed a militant hideout in Bhawan forest in Kupwara and seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition.
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