New Delhi (Sputnik) — At least four Indian security personnel were killed and eight others, including a commandant of the paramilitary forces, injured in a gunfight with terrorists in the Babagund Langate area of Handwara in the Kupwara district of Kashmir on Friday, according to the local police. Police sources further confirmed that the gun battle that started at midnight was still underway when reports last came in.
READ MORE: Indian Ex-Diplomat: Pakistan Must Assure India it Will Act Against Terror Groups
"When a joint search team of police, Central Reserve Police Force and Indian Army went to retrieve the terrorists' bodies amid a lull, one of the two militants, earlier believed to be dead stood up and fired indiscriminately," a local police official told the media.
India accuses Pakistan of harbouring terrorist organisations, notably Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and its founder, Masood Azhar, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba group. In the aftermath of the JeM suicide attack which killed over 40 Indian paramilitary personnel in Pulwama, Kashmir on 14 February, India conducted an air strike on alleged terror camps located in Balakot, Pakistan.
READ MORE: Pakistan Hopes to Avoid War With India: It Would Lead to Mutual Suicide
Pakistan responded to the airstrike, which Delhi described as 'pre-emptive and non-military', by dispatching F-16 jets to strike military targets within India. The incursion into Indian airspace was allegedly repelled, but a pursuing Indian Air Force MiG-21 Bison was shot down over Pakistan while India claims to have shot down a Pakistani F-16.
