94 militants killed since Jan 2020, 24 of them in last 2 weeks alone: IGP
Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, June 16: Three militants, including a nephew of a former PDP MLC, were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.
An official said that security forces cordoned off Turkwangam village this morning and launched searches. “As the joint team approached the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon it. The fire was retaliated by the team, triggering off an encounter in which three militants were killed,” the official added.
A defence ministry spokesman in a statement said slain militants were involved in the recent killing of a civilian, Tariq Ahmad Paul, “who was abducted and killed by them last week.”
A local news agency GNS said that Paul’s house was damaged during a gunfight leading to the killing of four militants’ at Pinjoora, two days before his body was found in Turkwangam.
While police said that the identity of the slain militants was yet to be ascertained, official sources identified the slain as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen district Commander Zubair Wani of Turkawangam, Kamran Manhas, nephew of former PDP MLC Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, a resident of Sharaab Kareena and Muneeb-ul-Haq of Sugan Zainapora Shopian.
Kamran Manhas had announced joining the Hizb ranks in January 2019 and a picture showing him holding an AK-47 rifle went viral on social media then. Reacting to it then, Zaffar Manhas had said he was in “absolute disbelief” and that he and his family could never imagine such a thing even in dreams. Since then Zaffar Manhas left PDP and joined Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party.
Kamran was the first youth from the Sharaab village to join militancy in more than twenty years. It could not be ascertained immediately if any other youth has joined the militant ranks since then.
The slain trio was buried in Sheeri Baramulla. Meanwhile, internet services were suspended in Shopian district.
Addressing a joint press conference after the encounter, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that the “joint operation was carried out in a professional manner with no collateral damage.”
“During the current year, 94 (militants) including top commanders have been killed so far,” he said, adding, “ Twenty four militants were killed in the past two weeks mostly in Shopian district.”
He said, “Militancy has almost been wiped out from South Kashmir though there may be a few militants still present. Our focus will now shift to north Kashmir from next month,” he said, adding that all the operations so far in the recent past including the one conducted today were “clean in nature and there was no collateral damage which has been widely appreciated by the people.”
On the recent killing of a Kashmiri Pandit Sarpanch Ajay Pandita in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, the IGP said that those behind the killing have been identified and one militant of Hizbul Mujahideen- Umar and another one, whose name was coming up during investigation, were killed recently in Shopian encounter. “To complete the investigations, we are waiting for the ballistic report from the forensic laboratory,” he said.
Kumar also said that police took the cognizance of woman sarpanch being kidnapped by militants from Bomia area of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, and found that one newly recruited militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba Waleed and his another associate were involved in the act. “We have shifted the woman Sarpanch and her husband who is also a Sarpanch to Srinagar and provided them accommodation and security. My appeal to Sarpanchs and Panchs is that if some of them are facing threats from militants, they should contact us and we will provide them with security,” the IGP added.
He said that this year so far 94 militants have been killed and 24 militants were alone killed in various gunbattles in South Kashmir in the past two weeks most of them in Shopian district alone. “In South Kashmir, militancy stands almost wiped out and now we will be shifting focus on north Kashmir from next month,” the IGP said. He said all the recent operations have been clean and without collateral damage. (With inputs from GNS, KNO)
