Kashmir University teacher, militants trapped in J&K gunfight (Lead)

Srinagar May 6 (IANS) A Kashmir University assistant professor who went missing last week is reportedly trapped along with militants in an ongoing gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir s Shopian district on Sunday police said.

Muhammad Rafi Bhat an assistant professor in the sociology department of Kashmir University went missing on Friday afternoon. He belongs to Chunduna village in Ganderbal district.

There were angry protests in the university campus on Saturday as protesting students asked authorities to trace the missing teacher.

Informed sources said police has taken his mother wife and brother to Badigam village in Shopian district to persuade Bhat to surrender.

Reports also said some top commanders of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit are trapped in the gunfight in which two security men including a soldier of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and a member of the special operations group (SOG) of state police have been critically injured.

The security forces including RR SOG and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had surrounded Badigam village following a tip-off about the presence of militants.

Authorities have suspended mobile internet services across south Kashmir.

--IANS
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