SRINAGAR: Two militants, including a Jaish-e-Mohammad commander having expertise in making IEDs, were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. In another incident a traffic policeman was critically injured in a militant attack in Srinagar on Wednesday.
A police official said security forces launched a joint combing and search operation in Qasbayar village in Pulwama during the preceding night after receiving inputs about the presence of militants there.“During the search operation, militants were asked to surrender and lay down weapons. However, they turned down the offer and fired on troops and in the ensuing gunfight, two Jaish militants were killed,” he said.
IGP Vijay Kumar identified the slain militants as Jaish commander Yasir Parray and a Pakistani militant
Furqan alias Ali Bhai. Terming Parray’s killing as a “big success”, he said the Jaish commander was an IED expert and involved in many attacks.
Police sources said Furqan had been active with JeM since June 2020 while Yasir was a “Category-B” militant, who had joined JeM in June 2019. “He was an associate of Pakistani militant Abu Saifullah alias Lambu, who had planned February 14, 2019, suicide attack on CRPF bus in which 40 CRPF men were killed,” they said.
Meanwhile, militants fired at a traffic policeman in Srinagar in the evening. Identified as Mohammad Abdullah, the policeman was rushed to nearby SMHS hospital, where he was operated by a team of doctors. The doctors have termed his condition as critical. After the attack, police and CRPF men rushed to the area and launched a search operation to track down the militants.
J&K pushed 30 years back by Centre: Azad
Former J&K CM and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said Article 370 revocation has pushed the erstwhile state 30 years back. “The Centre is saying that J&K state was bifurcated and turned into a Union Territory because the state was not granting land to outsiders for starting industries in the region,” Azad told reporters in Poonch.