Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, June 22: Three militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in an overnight encounter at Kakpora area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district and a protester was killed and 50 others were injured during violent clashes that broke out during the burial of these militants.
A joint team of Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched a cordon-and-search operation at Kakapora late last evening following a specific information about the presence of militants in the village.
Click here to watch video
Security forces intensified the operation and fired some warning shots towards the suspected house. The militants hiding inside fired at them, leading to a gun battle.
The exchange of firing continued intermittently throughout the night and security forces blasted off house in which they were holed in and during the searches three bodies with burn injuries were recovered from the debris.They have been identified as Majid Hameed Mir son of Abdul Hameed, Shakir Ahmad Gugjoo son of Bashir Ahmad, residents of Kakapora and Irshad Ahmad Dar son of Mohammad Sultan Dar resident of Aghangipora Padgampora, Awantipora. Two AK rifles and one pistol was recovered from the encounter site.
A police spokesman said that acting on a specific input, Pulwama police along with 50 RR and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in Bank Mohalla Kakapora.
“During the search militants hiding in the area fired at the search party, resulting in injury to one Army official who is stated to be stable. The fire was retaliated, ensuing an encounter”, he said.
The spokesman said that Majid Hamid Mir was involved in killings of Sarpanch Fayaz Ahmad resident of Kandizal and Sarpanch Fayaz Ahmad resident of Dar Mohalla Kakapora. He was also involved in grenade attacks on Police Post Kakapora and bank robbery at Wahibugh. “Majid along with Shakir Gugjoo were involved in the killing of advocate Abdul Gani and killing of a civilian Aijaz Ahmad resident of Urbugh. They were also involved in the bank robbery at Nehama”, he said.
The spokesman said that after the burial of militants, a violent mob attacked Police Post Kakapora. In order to save lives and Government property, the security forces used riot control measures in which one person identified as Tawseef Ahmad alias Chota Geelani resident of Tengpuna Pulwama was injured. The injured was shifted to hospital for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries. He was a chronic stone pelter and was involved in 10 stone pelting cases right from 2010 and has been earlier booked two times under PSA.
Commanding Officer of the 55 RR, Colonel Ajit while giving details of the operations said: “We received information from Srinagar Police South that three terrorists are hiding in New Colony Kakapora. Based on that, we along with CRPF and Pulwama Police launched a joint operation in general area of New Colony Kakapora. During the searches, our own party was fired upon from one of the suspected houses from the first floor of the building and we also returned the fire. We came to know that 2-3 terrorists are hiding in the house and we offered them to surrender but they fired upon our parties and in the retaliatory fire three terrorists were neutralized last night”, he said.
A protester was killed and 50 others were injured after clashes broke out in Kakapora and Awantipora areas of Pulwama district against the killings of three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants.
After the burial of the militants, clashes erupted at Kakapora and security forces fired scores of teargas shells and pellets on stone-throwing protesters.
Tawseef Ahmad Wani, 22, of Tengpuna village received a serious injury in his abdomen and head after hit by tear smoke shell. Wani was immediately shifted to nearby hospital where doctors declared him as brought dead.
After news about death of Wani spread, the clashes intensified in Kakapora and also spread to Pulwama town. At least 50 protesters were injured and 16 of them have been referred to Srinagar.
Due to clashes near Highway, the traffic was partially blocked. A spontaneous shutdown was observed at Newa, Samboora and few other areas of the Pulwama district.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
