Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Feb 19: A Hizbul Mujahideen militant was killed in an encounter with Army in Central Kashmir district of Budgam this afternoon.
A Srinagar based Defence spokesman, Lt Col N N Joshi, said here that today in the afternoon an Army party was moving towards village Dalwan in Chrar-i-Sharief area of district, Budgam and it came under fire.
The spokesman said that the fire was returned in which one militant was killed and from his possession, one SLR, one Pouch 04 SLR magazines, 13 SLR rounds, one grenade and PAN Card was recovered.
“The PAN Card is in the name of Tauseef Ahmad Dar son of Ghulam Hassan resident of Pulwama. The police party has taken the possession of the body and is trying to ascertain the identity of the body”, the spokesman added.
A police spokesman, however, identified the killed militant as Tauseef Dar. “The militant was identified by his brother as Tauseef Ahmad Dar son of Ghulam Hassan resident of Parichoo, Pulwama”, he added.
Sources said that the incident took place when two youth on a motorbike bearing registration number JKO4A- 451 were intercepted by the Army in the village after receiving intelligence inputs about militant movement in the area.
“The pillion rider managed to escape, the biker was shot dead by Army when he opened fire on them”, sources added. The Army and Police immediately launched an operation in the area to nab the other militant who escaped. Sources said that Dar joined militancy two years ago in 2012 and was active since then.
DIG South Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar, told Excelsior that Dar joined Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit in May 2013 but later shifted to Hizbul Mujahideen five months ago after his commander, Altaf Baba, was killed.
Kumar said that besides various militancy related incidents, Dar was responsible or killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh in Rajpora Chowk of Pulwama last year in May.
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