3 militants, one jawan killed in Pulwama fight 19 MOURNERS INJURED IN PELLET FIRING
Hours after the security forces gunned down four Al-Barq Mujahedin militants and captured a fifth one in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Friday evening, a similar fire fight occurred in neighbouring Pulwama leaving three more militants dead. One Army jawan was also killed in the second clash, the officials said here.
A spokesman of J&K police said on Saturday that its counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) together with the Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)’s 182 and 183 Battalions launched a cordon-and-search operation in Pulwama Zadoora village overnight.
“During the search operation, as the presence of terrorists got ascertained they were given the opportunity to surrender. However, they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” the spokesman said.
He added that the three H i z b - u l - Muj a h i d e e n cadres killed in the clash have been identified as Adil Hafiz, Arshid Ahmed Dar and Rouf Ahmed Mirall residents of Pulwama.
In the encounter, Army jawan Prashant Sharma received critical injuries. He was evacuated to Srinagar’s 92-Base Army Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries later.
Defence spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said Sepoy Sharma “was in the lead element of his party when it came into contact with the terrorists during a specific search operation launched in village Zadoora.” An Army jawan suffered gunshot wounds.
At least 19 mourners were injured when the police fired teargas canisters and pellet shotguns to disperse a Muharram tazia procession in Srinagar’s Bemina area on Saturday.
The hospital sources and witnesses said that 12 of the injured were hit by pellets and that the condition of, at least, one of them who received multiple pellet entrance wounds in the face is stated to be critical.
The police burst teargas canisters to disperse the Shia mourners also in Shalimar area on the outskirts of the City later during the day.
However, a large number of mourners took to the streets in congested Gaw Kadal area of the summer capital and amid chanting of slogans and rhymes in praise of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, who was martyred along with 71 of his family members and companions in the Battle of Karbala (Iraq) in October 680 began intense self-flagellation. The witnesses said that the police and other security forces watched them from a distance and did not try to interfere unlike at Bemina and Shalimar.
The police authorities said that only “mild force” was used against groups of people at a couple of places after they violated restrictions in force in parts of Srinagar in view of the COVID-19 and tried to take out tazia processions, ignoring the appeals of the authorities.