2 Hizb militants killed in Kulgam
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 22: Army today foiled a major infiltration bid in Gurez sector of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district today while two militants were shot dead in Kulgam district of South Kashmir during an operation.
A senior Army officer said that at about 4 pm, a group of 4 to 5 militants attempted to sneak into this side in the general area of Naushahra Nar in Kanjalwan of Gurez.
He said that the soldiers of 36 RR manning the fence challenged them and the militants opened fire leading to a brief exchange of fire.
After being challenged, the militants fled back to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
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The officer said that troops conducted a search operation in the area during which two AK 47 rifles with nine magazines, 187 rounds, one Chinese pistol with two magazines, two rounds and one Pithu bag were recovered.
He said that additional reinforcement of the Army has been rushed to the area and massive searches are underway.
Meanwhile, two militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in an encounter at Gopalpora area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district today.
A joint operation was launched by Army’s 34 RR and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police at Gopalpora village today after inputs about presence of militants in the village.
During searches of the houses, militants fired upon the security forces, who retaliated leading to a gun battle. The gun battle continued for several hours and initially one militant was killed and later another was also shot dead.
The killed militants have been identified as Irfan Manzoor Bhat of Poniwah Kulgam and Zahid Ahmad Mantoo of Ferripora Shopian.
According to the police records, the killed militants were affiliated with HM. They were wanted by law for their complicity in militant attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities.
As per police records, Zahid was involved in planning and executing series of attacks in the area and many other civilian atrocities. “Several terror crime cases were registered against him. He was involved in case FIR No 307/2018 pertaining to the killing of three policemen at Batgund Shopian last year. He was also involved in case FIR No 304/2018, 343/2018, 352/2018, 361/2018 pertaining to terror attacks and civilian atrocities in the area”, a police spokesman said.
Irfan had joined the HM recently and was part of the group involved in the killing of Abdul Majeed Dar of Shalipora Kulgam for which case (FIR No. 40/2019) was registered in Police Station Kulgam. Some other criminal cases were also registered against him.
Security forces recovered incriminating materials including arms and ammunition from the site of encounter. Police has registered a case and all these materials have been taken in the case records for the purpose of investigation.
Security forces this year achieved major success against the militants and so far they have killed 83 militants during the operations that were launched across Kashmir.
The operations have been intensified especially after Pulwama attack on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in February this year. However, the total death toll this year is also high at 203 including 88 security force personnel and 32 civilians.
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