SRINAGAR: Four militants, including a Pakistani militant of Jaish-e-Mohammad, were killed in two separate gunfights at Zadibal area of downtown Srinagar and in Kulgam district. IG, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said police and paramilitary personnel laid siege around Zadibalon Saturday evening after receiving inputs about presence of three militants there. After sealing all the entry and exit routes, security personnel zeroed in on a three-storey house.
“We called the local elderly persons, who appealed militants to lay down weapons and surrender. We also brought families of two of the three trapped militants to the site and they appealed them to surrender,” the IG said Militants, however, lobbed grenades and fired on security forces following which a nearly four hour encounter started at the site. All the three holed-up militants were killed and the house was partially damaged.
The trio was earlier associated with Hizbul Mujahideen but later shifted their allegiance to Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir, the IG said, adding that one of the militants as was involved in killing of two BSF men on the outskirts of Srinagar on May 20.
In south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, security forces shot dead the Pakistani militant. The slain Jaish-e-Mohammad militant was identified as Tayab Waleed alias Imran Bhai alias Gazi Baba. “Waleed was an operational commander of Jaish and an expert in making IEDs besides being a sharp shooter. An AK rifle, one M-4 Carbine, and a pistol was recovered from the encounter site,” the IG said.
Bodies of all four militants would be buried in north Kashmir. After outbreak of Covid, police is not handing over bodies of local militants to their families and burying them in north and central Kashmir.