Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Feb 13: Security forces today achieved a major success by killing district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen and his associate in a fierce encounter in South Kashmir district of Shopian.
Deputy Inspector General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, South Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, told Excelsior that police, 44-Rashtriya Rifles of Army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in a joint operation today killed district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, Arshad Ahmad Sheikh resident of Haripora and his associate Abid Ahmad Rather of Wehil in a fierce encounter in an orchard in Pinjur village of Shopian district.
Kumar said that police got specific information about the presence of these militants and launched an operation against these militants who had made their hideout in a tin shed in an orchard in Pijura village.
The DIG said that these militants opened fire on the security forces after they were trapped inside the tin shed and security forces retaliated killing both the militants.
Kumar said that they were involved in the killing of a released militant Shabir Ahmad of Saidpora last year. He said that they also snatched weapons from a minority picket last year in Shopian and the security forces recovered the snatched weapons from them.
The DIG said that these two militants were involved in issuing threats to Panchs and Sarpanchs in South Kashmir and were a potential threat to the voters in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Kashmir.
Srinagar based Defence spokesman, Lt Col N N Joshi said that based on intelligence inputs from Police regarding presence of militants hiding in village Pinzur of Shopian Distt, joint operation was launched by troops of an RR battalion and SOG Shopian which resulted in elimination of two hard core HM militants while one was still trapped.
“At 1330 hrs, intelligence input was received regarding three militants hiding in a shed near Drallbagh Orchard of village Pinzur in Shopian. Immediately troops of RR and SOG, Shopian jointly launched an operation and cordoned off the area. Subsequently troops came under heavy volume of fire from militants, during the ensuing fire fight, two militants were gunned down. These militants have been actively operating in the area since last more than two years”, the spokesman added.
The death of the militants sparked off violent protests in the area. Hundreds of people shouting slogans pelted stones on the security forces. Police fired teargas shells triggering clashes resulting in injuries to nine persons. Police also restored to aerial firing to disperse the protesters.
All the injured persons have been immediately shifted to district hospital Shopian for treatment. However, the three injured persons who have received serious pellet gun injuries shifted to SKIMS Soura for specialized treatment. They have been identified as Umar Ahmad, Tariq Ahmad and Mohammad Ashraf.
Photojournalist Sajjad Ahmad was also injured as he was beaten by SOG while covering encounter. He was referred to hospital for treatment. “I was returning from the encounter site when the forces grabbed me and beat me mercilessly. They also damaged my cameras,” he said.
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