‘NO SRINAGAR RESIDENT IN TERROR RANKS’

No resident of Srinagar is now in terrorist militant ranks, inspector general of police Vijay Kumar said on Sunday, a day after a top Lashkar commander was killed.

SRINAGAR: A day after Lashkar-eTaiba(LeT) commander Ishfaq Rashid Khan along with another member was killed by security forces in an encounter in Ranbirgarh-Panzinara area of Srinagar, Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar on Sunday said that no resident of Srinagar is now among terrorist ranks.

“After killing of LeT terrorist Ishfaq Rashid Khan yesterday, no resident of Srinagar district in terrorist ranks now,” Kashmir police’s twitter handle quoted IGP Kumar.

However, the statement contradicts with the fact shared by Kumar on June 23 when he said that Hilal Ahmad, a PhD scholar of Bemina Srinagar who had gone missing during a hiking trip to Ganderbal on June 14, has joined Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. He is still unaccounted for. So far, 10 militants have been killed in Srinagar in various encounters - a few of them belonging from the district. The two militants killed on Saturday were trapped after a joint cordon and search operation was launched by JKP, 29 RR and CRPF in the said area.

A police spokesman said they were given an opportunity to surrender. “However they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, the two were killed,” he said.

After the July 3 encounter, Kumar had said Srinagar would never be terrorism-free.