SRINAGAR: In a major setback to Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, six militants of two groups including one involved in the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari in June this year were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces in Bijbehara area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Friday.
A police official said based on specific input about the presence of militants, a search operation was launched jointly by police, CRPF and army men inside a forest area of Sekipora at Bijbehara in Anantnag district in the early hours today.
"As the searches were going on, militants fired on the search party. The fire was retaliated by troops, triggering an encounter," he said.
The official said in the ensuing gunfight, which lasted for five hours, six militants of Lashkar and Hizb were killed. He identified the deceased militants as Azad Ahmad Malik, Unais Shafi, Basit Ishtiyaq, Atif Najar, Firdous Ahmad and Shahid Bashir, all locals.
"It was a combined group of Hizb and LeT. Unais and Basit were Hizb militants while the four others belonged to Lashkar," he said.
According to an official, Unais was the district commander of Hizb and Firdous and Azad district commanders of Lashkar. He said Azad Ahmad Malik alias Azad Dada had escaped from an encounter site at Khudwani Kulgam in April this year along with another associate.
"Azad was a close associate of Pakistani militant Naveed Jatt, who escaped from police custody from a Srinagar hospital early this year," the official said.
He said Azad's name had also figured during an investigation into the assassination of senior journalist and Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and his two security guards.
The official said a hue and cry notice was issued against Azad and three others on the basis of material evidence collected against them.
Shujaat along with two of his security guards was killed by militants outside his office at Press Enclave in city centre Lal Chowk during the holy month of Ramadan on June 14.
Terming killing of six militants in today's encounter as a major jolt to LeT and Hizb, the police official said 4 AK 47 rifles and an Insas rifle were recovered from the encounter site. He said the operation was "clean" as there was no collateral damage during the encounter.