Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 11: Two militants of Jaish-e-Muhammad were killed in a 16-hour -long encounter between security forces and militants in Krandigam village of Bijbehara area in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district today.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Vijay Kumar told Excelsior that militants turned down repeated surrender offers from the security forces during the operation and opened firing on the troops. In the ensuing gunfight, both the militants were killed.
Kumar said that the operation was launched based on specific input generated by Anantnag police regarding presence of militants in village Kandipora, Bijbehara area of Anantnag. He said that a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, Army’s 3 RR and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
“During the search operation, as the presence of militants got ascertained they were given opportunity to surrender. However, they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” he said.
Kumar said that due to darkness, the operation was suspended but the cordon remained intact throughout the night. He said repeated announcements were again made to hiding militants to surrender, but the militants fired on joint search party and the fire was retaliated resulting in the elimination of two militants.
The IGP said that militants claimed that they escaped after the initial firing and didn’t respond to the fire. “It was aimed to confuse us but we were confident that they are inside and didn’t lift the cordon”, he added.
The two militants were identified as Adil Ahmad Bhat, resident of Shithpora , Bijbehara and Zahid Ahmad Rather, resident of Sirhama, Anantnag. Both were affiliated with militant outfit JeM.
“As per police records, both the killed militants were involved in several criminal cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities,” he said.
Police recovered incriminating materials including arms and ammunition from the site of encounter. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other crimes,” police said.
“The last rites of the killed militants shall be performed after conducting their medico-legal formalities and their nearest family members shall be allowed to participate in their last rites”, the police spokesman said.
“In this connection, a case under relevant Sections of law has been registered and investigation initiated”, police added.
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