Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 22: Police today said a Hizbul Mujahideen militant was killed in a brief gunfight at Awantipora in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
A senior police officer said after receiving specific input about the presence of militant, the security forces including police’s Special Operation Group (SOG), the army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and 130 Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force cordoned off Kawani village of Awantipora in the afternoon.
“As the searches were underway, the hiding militants fired upon search parties triggering an encounter,” the officer said, adding one Hizb militant was killed in the gunfight.
The slain has been identified as Muzamil Ahmad Dar, resident of Chhaterpora in Shopian district. Sources said that there were three militants hiding in the area and two managed to escape.
While as police claimed that Muzamil was a Hizb militant, his family, however, said that he was an auto driver and left his house yesterday. “All we know is he left home yesterday and since then his mobile phone was switched off. We had no information about his whereabouts,” a cousin-brother of slain militant said. The family of Muzamil raised fingers on police claims of him being a militant.
Refuting family allegations, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police, Nitish Kumar told Excelsior that Muzamil was a Hizb militant and based upon the inputs about his presence, they launched an operation in Kawani. “We received input about his presence. Once the search parties went to the village they were fired upon and grenades were also thrown,” he said, adding that security forces managed to kill Muzamil.
Referring to family allegations, the DIG said: “anyone could be a militant; be it an auto driver or a student. The fact is Muzamil was with militants and had joined the militancy recently.” When asked when did he joined the Hizb, the DIG said: “Although we are not sure so far about the date of his joining but prior to that he was working as Over Ground Worker (OGW) for Hizb from last three to four months.”
The DIG further said that two grenades were recovered from the possession of slain Muzamil. He said that two of his associates managed to escape from the encounter spot and they also took away his rifle after he was hit by a bullet.
“We have launched a search operation to track down those two militants as well. The search operation is underway and hopefully we would be able to neutralize them,” he added.
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