Srinagar: A top militant of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen was killed in an overnight encounter with police, army and CRPF in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, officials said on Wednesday.
“During the intervening night of 14/15 December, acting on a specific input regarding the presence of a (militant) in village Uzrampathri area of Pulwama, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, (army’s) 44RR and 182 batallion CRPF in the area,” a police spokesman said.
“During the search operation, as the presence of (militant) got ascertained, he was given repeated opportunities to surrender; however he fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated, leading to an encounter.”
In the ensuing encounter, the militant was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of encounter. He has been identified as Feroz Ahmad Dar son of Abdul Khaliq of Heff-Shrimal Shopian.
“As per police records, the killed (militant) was A+ categorized (militant) and was part of groups involved in several cases including attacks on security forces and civilian.”
Pertinently, he said, the killed militant was active since 2017 and involved in several cases including attack on the Minority Guard in December 2018 at Zainapora, resulting in killing of four Police personnel and looting their service rifles. “He was also involved in killing of a girl namely Ishrat Muneer daughter of Muneer Ahmad Bhat resident of Dangerpora Pulwama in February 2019,” the spokesperson said, “He was involved in killing of a non local labour namely Charnajeet son of Hans Raj resident of Fazila Punjab and injuring other in October 2019 when they were loading Apple boxes in a vehicle in Zainapora area of Shopian.” Besides he was also instrumental in luring the gullible youth to join militant ranks, the spokesman said.
“Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one AK rifle along with three magazines were also recovered from his possession. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.”
