Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 15: In a major success, Army and police today gunned down two militants recycled into Hizbul Mujahideen after deserting police, where they had been posted as Special Police Officers (SPOs) on the intervening night of September 7 and 8 but one of their associates, who had taken them to Kishtwar and then brought them back to Doda remained untraced and unidentified. The SPOs had recycled into the militancy at the behest of Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salah-ud-Din, who had been operating from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The day the SPOs deserted police pickets, Army and police personnel started monitoring their movement using sophisticated surveillance equipments and other resources to track them down. Army and police twice reached very close to eliminate the militants-once at Keshwan in Kishtwar and another time at Marmat, Doda but they managed to slip away. With no or very little support from the locals, the militants had been forced to shift to plains from the higher reaches.
However, after missing the militants-turned-SPOs-turned-militants twice, troops of 10 Rashtriya Rifles, who were part of Delta Force and Doda police surrounded a water mill (gharat) at Gadi Nallah under the jurisdiction of Dessa police station in Doda district at 3 am today after developing specific inputs that the militants had been hiding there.
“An encounter ensued after Army and police challenged the militants and asked them to surrender. In the exchange of gun-battle, both the militants were gunned down. Army and police didn’t suffer any casualties in the operation. The official weapons of police, which the SPOs had taken with them while deserting police, have been recovered from their possession,” DIG Doda-Ramban range Nissar Ahmad said.
He said one Insas and one AK-47 rifle along with magazines and rounds, with which the militants had fled away on the night of September 7 and 8 last month, excepting the round they fired on Army and police today, have been recovered from their possession. With this, an attempt by Salah-ud-Din to revive the network of Hizbul Mujahideen and militancy in Doda district has been foiled, he added.
This was after four years that an encounter with militants took place in Doda as the district was free of militancy.
According to sources, a conduit of Hizbul Mujahideen had helped the deserters in finding hideouts for them during their 40 days of hide and seek battle with Army and police. This conduit was with the militants at Keshwan in Kishtwar district last month, where they were chased by the security personnel but they had managed to slip away to higher reaches. Again, this conduit had helped the militants at Marmat in Doda, where they had stayed for few days.
However, with winter setting down in the upper reaches, the militants were forced to come down to the plains. As Army and police were keeping surveillance on the militants, they got specific input of their presence at the water mill and eliminated them. Their bodies were recovered this morning from the water mill and identified as that of the police deserters.
They were Gul Mohammad Mingnoo alias Gulla alias Molvi son of Bashir Ahmad Mingnoo, a resident of Mohalla Dandian, Doda and Reyaz Ahmad son of Abdul Rashid R/o Dedni Marmat, Doda.
Sources said the SPOs had deserted police at the behest of Salah-ud-Din, whose message was conveyed to them by the conduit, who was still at large. This conduit had also approached another SPO but he had refused to desert, sources said, adding Salah-ud-Din wanted to revive his network and the militancy in Doda district. It may be mentioned here that Doda was among the militancy-free district in Jammu and Kashmir.
Soon after the SPOs had deserted police force and joined the militant ranks, Salah-ud-Din had made a statement in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) owning desertions by the militants and their joining of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.
Gul Mohammad Mingnoo was earlier affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the year 2005 and was operating as district commander of the outfit in Dessa, Sazan, Koti, Bharat and Keshwan areas of Doda and Kishtwar districts.
He had surrendered August 22, 2010 before Doda police along with arms and ammunition and after surrender, he was engaged as SPO on November 29, 2011. He had escaped from Special Police Post Kasheryan along with a service Rifle Insas, three magazines and 60 rounds on the intervening night of September 7 and 8.
Similarly, Reyaz Ahmed son of Abdul Rashid, a resident of Dedni, Marmat in Doda had earlier joined HM outfit in the month of January 2003 and remained active in Marmat, Dudu, Basantgarh, Ramnagar and parts of Kathua and Udhampur districts. He had surrendered on February 14, 2004 at district Kathua and after surrender, he was engaged as SPO in J&K Police on October 9, 2004 and was posted in the District Police Lines (DPL) Doda on March 6, 2013. He had deserted the DPL along with AK- 47 rifle, three magazines and 90 rounds.
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