Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Jan 30: Five militants including top Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander were killed in two separate encounters in Kashmir today.
Addressing a joint press conference at Balapur, Shopian, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of South Kashmir based Victor Force Lieutenant General Prashant Srivastava said that acting on a specific lead, joint teams of police, Army and CRPF laid a siege in Naira village of Pulwama last evening.
“In the initial assault, three militants were killed and later the presence of another militant was established and he was also killed and identified as Zahid Manzoor Wani, an IED expert and the JeM’s south Kashmir chief,” the GOC said.
“He was the master mind of IED attacks carried out in South Kashmir since 2017 and the main recruiter of local boys into militancy fold. His killing is a big success for security forces,” he said.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said that during the operation, house owner’s son Inayat Ahmed, was asked to surrender but he along with militants opened fire at the security forces and got killed. “He was a hybrid militant,” the IGP said.
He said that the house owner at Naira, Pulwama, in whose house the encounter took place, will be booked under UAPA.
He said the killing of JeM commander Zahid Manzoor Wani, who was the wanted commander of JeM, was killed along with his three associates while another militant of LeT was killed in an encounter at Charar-e-Shareef in Budgam district.
“In total, five militants, were killed including four in Naira, Pulwama and one in Budgam in the past 12 hours,” he said. The IGP said that Zahid was in fact the chief of JeM for the entire Kashmir. “His brother was also a militant and is in jail,” the IGP said.
Kumar said that this year 21 militants including eight foreigners were killed in 11 encounters. “Foreigners who were hiding in forests are coming and settling down in civilian areas. With the help of human and technical inputs, we are zeroing in on them and killing them in clean operations,” he said, adding that in both the operations, there were no casualties to security forces.
He said all efforts are in place to bring down local militant recruitment and a strategy is being followed to bring the number of active militants less than 100 this year.
In the meantime, a police spokesman said that in Pulwama, acting on specific information regarding presence of terrorists in village Naira, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, 55RR and 182/183Bn CRPF in the said area. While laying down the cordon of the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired indiscriminately on the joint search parties. However, due to darkness and to ensure safety of the civilians trapped inside the cordon area, the joint parties exercised maximum restraint.
After evacuation of the civilians to the safer places, the fire was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, four militants were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter. They have been identified as Zahid Ahmad Wani alias Uzair, a top commander, resident of Karimabad Pulwama, foreign militant Kafeel Bhari alias Chotu resident of Pakistan, Waheed Ahmad Reshi resident of Khadermoh Kakapora and Inayat Ahmad Mir resident of Naira Pulwama.
As per police records, the killed militants were linked to the JeM and were part of group involved in several attacks on police and security forces and civilians. “The killed militant Zahid Wani was a categorized militant active since May-2017 and involved in attacks on security forces and civilians. He was involved in an attack on patrolling party of 44RR at Below Rajpora, attack on patrolling party of 55RR at Tiken Pulwama, attack on patrolling party of 50RR at Parigam, grenade attack on PS Pulwama and firing upon CRPF camp at Rajpora. Besides, he was also involved in killing of one civilian Azad Ahmad Dar of Kangan Pulwama. Moreover, terrorist Zahid Wani was also instrumental in motivating the gullible youth to join militant folds and other criminal activities”, the spokesman said.
It is pertinent to mention that Zahid was one of the masterminds behind various IED attacks. Kafeel Bhai was operating in the Pulwama and Shopian belts and involved in a series of militancy cases. Waheed was active since 2021 while as Inayat Ahmad had joined militancy recently.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one M4 rifle, two AK series rifles and two pistols have been recovered from the site of encounter.
Meanwhile, another anti-militancy operation was launched in village Chrar-e-Sharif area of Budgam by Police, 53RR and 181Bn CRPF. As the joint search parties were approaching towards suspected spot, the hiding militants started firing indiscriminately on the search parties which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
In the ensuing encounter, the hiding militant identified as Bilal Ahmad Khan, resident of Chill Brass Khansahab was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of encounter. As per police records, he was a categorized militant and linked with the LeT (TRF).
As per police records, he was a categorized militant and part of group involved in several militancy cases.
Incriminating materials, arms ammunition including one AK-56 rifle, two AK magazines and five AK rounds have been recovered from the site of encounter.
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