9 foreign militants killed in last few months: GOC Victor Force
Zahid killed in Budgam encounter was recruiting locals in militant ranks: IGP Kashmir
Srinagar: A top Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) Commander Zahid Manzoor Wani was among the five militants killed in two separate overnight operations in Kashmir valley, top security officials said on Sunday.
“Zahid Wani was chief of JeM in this entire area and was the mastermind of various Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks taken place over the various years since 2017,” General Officer Commanding of Army’s Victor Force Major General Prashant Srivastava told the media in a joint briefing in south Kashmir.
The Major General informed that Zahid was involved in extensive recruitment of young boys whom he misled and all of them met the untimely death which caused anguish to their families and the people residing in the area.
“We have taken an important step in neutralizing all the JeM militants in the entire south Kashmir,” GOC stated.
Three more militants were killed during a joint operation carried out at village Naira in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday night, he informed.
Major General Srivastava further stated in the last few months nine Pakistan militants were killed who were targeting civilians and in their attacks some of the security forces were also killed.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said Zahid was active since 2017 and was involved in various killings besides recruiting locals in the militancy.
He said, on a tip off from two places, a joint operation was launched during which one local militant of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) was killed at Charar-e-Sharief and in Pulwma four militants were neutralized including the top commander of JeM Zahid Wani.
An Army officer giving brief about the operation carried out at village Naira in Pulamwa said that specific inputs were received about the presence of three to four militants in village Naira.
A cordon was laid in the general area by Army, JK Police and CRPF, when they proceeding towards the target the hiding militants started heavy firing.
“Our primary concern was to evacuate the civilians from the area initially so that the operation could be conducted accordingly”, the army officer said and added “this was done in a deliberate manner and once the civilians were evacuated from the cordoned area the heavy firing was retaliated and all the four militants were killed”, he stated.
Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the site of both the encounters besides incriminating documents, the police added. (UNI)
