SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday said the Doda district in the Union Territory has become “militancy-free” as the last of the surviving militant in the area was killed in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag district.
Hizbul Mujahideen commander from Doda Masood Ahmad Bhat and two other militants were killed in a joint operation by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the J&K Police, Army’s 19 Rashtriya Rifles and the CRPF at Khul Chohar village in Anantnag district in the early hours of Monday, a police official said.
“The police had received inputs about the presence of militants Khul Chohar. During the search operation, the militants fired on the troops. Soon, the encounter broke out in which the militants were killed,” he added. An AK-assault rifle, two pistols and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site. “The other two militants belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba,” the police official said.
A police spokesman said Masood was the last surviving and active militant of Doda.“With the killing of Masood, the Doda district has become militancy-free,” he said.The bodies of all the three militants were buried by the police in a graveyard in Handwara. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the police have not been handing over the bodies of local militants to their families and burying them in graveyards.About 20 encounters have taken place in J&K this month in which 50 militants have been neutralised.
Masood Ahmad Bhat gunned down
A police spokesman said Masood was involved in a rape case in the Doda district and had been absconding since then. “He later joined the Hizbul Mujahideen and shifted his area of operation to Kashmir,” he said