Jehangeer Ganai
Pulwama, Srinagar, Oct 15: Jammu and Kashmir police Friday said that two Lashkar-e-Toiba (TRF) militants were killed in two separate encounters in southern Pulwama and Srinagar, who were involved in the killing of a civilian and probationary sub-inspector.
A police officer said that based on a specific input, police, army and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in village Wahibugh area of Pulwama. “During the search operation, when the suspected house where the militant was hiding, was zeroed-in, repeated offers of surrender were made. But the militant fired indiscriminately at the forces triggering a gun-battle,” he said. “In the ensuing encounter, one militant identified as Shahid Bashir Shiekh, resident of Habba Kadal, Srinagar was killed and his body retrieved from the site of encounter.” The officer said that slain militant had joined militancy recently and was linked with Lashkar-e-Toiba (TRF). Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar told KNO that slain militant Shahid was involved in the killing of civilian and PDD employee Muhammad Shafi Dar of Batamaloo, Srinagar. “We have recovered an AK-47 rifle from the slain militant,” the IGP said.
About the second encounter, police said based on a specific input by police about the presence of a militant at Hamdaniya Colony Bemina area of Srinagar, an operation was launched by the police in the area. “During the search operation, the hiding militant was asked to surrender but he fired at the forces triggering an encounter,” a police official said, adding that “In the ensuing encounter, one militant identified as Tanzeel Ahmed, a resident of Haba Kadal, Srinagar.
He said that the slain Tanzeel was involved in the killing of Probationary Sub Inspector Arshid Ashraf at Khanyar, Srinagar on September 12. The Kashmir police chief said that Shahid and Tanzil were also “collaborators in recent killings of a chemist and two teachers in the city.” The IGP Kashmir said that after recent civilian killings, Srinagar based militants had shifted to south Kashmir “but we continued to track their movements and managed to zero in on them today.”
“Now only three militants are active as two have been killed today. We are after the remaining three and will soon get them,” the IGP said, both the encounters took place within a span of three hours. “Both operations are over and two-AK-47 rifles have been recovered from the two slain militants,” he said.
