4 militants killed in twin encounters in Shopian

Security forces near the site of an encounter at Drach Keegam in Shopian district on Wednesday. -Excelsior/Younis Khaliq
Security forces near the site of an encounter at Drach Keegam in Shopian district on Wednesday. -Excelsior/Younis Khaliq

Man killed in police fire, cop held

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 5: Security forces today killed four militants in twin encounters in Shopian district of South Kashmir while one person died after a policeman’s rifle went-off accidentally in Haal area of Pulwama.
Security forces including Police, 44 RR of Army and CRPF last evening launched a cordon and search operation in village Drach Keegam area of Shopian following an input regarding presence of militants in the area.

Click here to watch video
As a search party proceeded towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired indiscriminately upon the search party. The joint party retaliated effectively leading to an encounter.
Three local militants of JeM were killed and their bodies were recovered from the site of encounter. They have been identified as Zubair Maqbool Wani, resident of Doompora Keegam, Jamsheed Ahmad Magray, resident of Rajpora and Hanaan Bin Yaqoob alias Saqib, resident of Kareemabad Pulwama.
As per police records, all the militants were categorized and were involved in several militancy related cases including attacks on police, security forces and civilians.
“Hanan Bin Yaqoob and Jamsheed were involved in recent killing of SPO Javed Dar on 02/10/2022 at Pinglana area of Pulwama. They were also involved in killing of an outside labourer from West Bengal in Gadoora. Besides, Jamshed was involved in Ratnipora attack where he shot and injured two outside labourers,” police records suggest.
Meanwhile, today morning on a specific input regarding presence of a militant at Moolu area of Shopian, police along with 44 RR of Army and CRPF launched a joint cordon and search operation in the area.
As the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired indiscriminately on search party resulting in a gun battle. One militant was killed and he has been identified as Arif Rashid Wani, resident of Shirmal.
As per police records, the killed militant belonged to the LeT. He was involved in several militancy cases including attacks on police, security forces and civilians.
“Arms and ammunition including four AK series rifles, one pistol, eight AK magazines, four pistol magazines and other incriminating materials were recovered from both the encounter sites,” police added.
In the meantime, a civilian was killed after rifle of a cop went off accidentally. The cop has been arrested in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district today.
Additional Director General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that while on duty at Haal Pulwama, rifle of a policeman accidentally went off resulting in injuries to a person. “The injured person was immediately evacuated to the hospital by police”, he said.
The injured was identified as Mohammad Asif Padroo son of Mohammad Ayub Padroo of Poterwaal Shopian. He later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
A case was registered and policeman arrested, police said adding the investigations are going on.