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Mukhtar Ahmed In Srinagar:
Twenty-nine militants, and two armymen were among 33 persons killed in stepped up violence across Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, according to police sources.
Meanwhile, tension was high in the south Kashmir town of Tral where 54 shops were razed to ground in a devastating blaze, which erupted after a militant ambush left two members of the special operations group dead.
One civilian was also killed while four others received injuries and were admitted in various hospitals.
The Kashmir range police chief Ashok Bhan visited the spot on Sunday morning.
He met police and security force officers and reviewed the situation.
Agitated locals observed a strike on Sunday and traffic remained off the roads. The residents of Tral alleged that the SOG started the fire, which destroyed a major portion of the market.
Several parked vehicles were also damaged in the fire and the encounter.
The police, however, said that the shops were destroyed during the firing exchange.
Meanwhile, security forces gunned down 25 militants in four separate encounters in the border district of Poonch in Jammu region.
A police spokesman in Srinagar said six militants died in a fierce firing exchange at Janrola Bandi Kama Khan village in Mandi sector of Poonch district.
In a nearby village of Mandi Jalian, five militants died in a gun battle with the security forces.
The gun battles erupted after security forces mounted operations in the two villages. The operations were still in progress.
Police said six militants and two army soldiers died in another fierce gunbattle with the security forces at Mendhar in the same district.
An army major received serious injuries in the gunbattle.
In two separate encounters eight more militants were killed in the same district.
Details were still not available.
Security forces gunned down two militants in the Bharat forest area in Doda district.
The police said during a search operation at Dadikote in the northern border district of Kupwara two more militants were killed by the army.
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