Anantnag: Four terrorists, two locals and two Pakistani nationals, were killed in three separate encounters with government forces in the last 24 hours. The police gave this information on Tuesday.
Two encounters took place in Sopore and Kupwara districts of North Kashmir and the third in Shopian district of South Kashmir.
The first encounter took place late Monday evening in the Panipora forest area of Jalur in Sopore district, where government forces had surrounded the terrorists in a cordon and search operation.
Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said, “The terrorists were four in number, three of them Pakistanis and the fourth a local.” He said three terrorists, including a local, managed to escape while one of them was killed.
Kumar said the documents obtained from the possession of the slain terrorist have identified the slain terrorist as Hanzala, a resident of Lahore in Pakistan. “An AK-47 rifle, five magazines and some incriminating material have been recovered from his possession,” Kumar said.
A senior police officer from Sopore said an intensive search operation was launched in the forest to nab the remaining terrorists, but they managed to escape. “The operation was called off late Monday night,” he said.
The encounter started once again in the early hours of Tuesday in the Chaktaras Kandi area of Kupwara district. Acting on inputs about the presence of terrorists in the area, the operation was launched. Contact was soon established and the terrorists were asked to surrender,” said a senior police officer from Kupwara.
He said that the militants did not lay down arms but indiscriminately opened fire on the security forces. “The fire was reciprocated, a shootout ensued. Two terrorists were killed,” the official said.
The slain terrorists were later identified as a Pakistani and a local. The Pakistani went by a code name Tufail, while the local was a resident of Tral named Ishtiaq Lone, who had recently joined the ranks.
IGP Kumar said, “Two of them belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba.” “Weapons and ammunition have been recovered from the bodies along with some incriminating material,” he said.
Hours after the encounter ended in Kupwara, government forces launched another operation in a Bagh area in Badimarg Alura area of Shopian district.
“Terrorists hiding in an orchard opened fire on sensing our presence. The fire was retaliated, but the militants managed to change their position in the dense vegetation of the Bagh area,” said a senior police officer from Shopian district.
He said that a close search in the area led to a second contact with the terrorists and the firing started again, “which led to the death of one terrorist this time”.
The police official said that the operation is still on and the forces are ensuring that there is no further terrorist presence in the area. Though the police did not reveal the identity of the terrorist killed in the encounter, sources have identified him as a student of BVSc (Bachelor of Veterinary Sciences), Kulgam.
A police source told Kashmir Reader, “Nadeem Ahmed Rather alias Dr Raja Nadeem, son of Abdul Rehman from Ashmuji area of Kulgam district went missing in 2020. “Initial reports suggest that he is a terrorist killed in the Shopian encounter.”
However, when the report was filed late Tuesday evening, there was no official confirmation of the identity of the slain terrorist.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the four slain terrorists have been sent for medical legal formalities, after which they will be shifted to an undisclosed location in North Kashmir for burial.
Violence has escalated in the Kashmir Valley over the past fortnight, with over ten encounters so far resulting in the death of around 20 terrorists and a policeman.
There have also been attacks on non-locals, Kashmiri Pandits, off-duty policemen and some politically affiliated locals in different parts of the Valley.
Despite the violence, LG Manoj Sinha has said that terrorism is in its final stages in the Kashmir Valley. “When the lamp is about to go out, it twinkles more. Some elements from across the border are trying to disturb the peace here but they will not succeed. Terrorism is now in its final stages,” Sinha told reporters in Srinagar on Monday.
