Wanted Pak militant among two dead in Kulgam gunfight: Police
SRINAGAR: J&K Police have identified both the militants who were killed in Kulgam on Monday night. One of them, the police said, was a wanted Pakistani militant active in south Kashmir for the past five years, while the other one was a local.
A police spokesperson identified them as Pakistani terrorist Jameel Pasha, who was linked with proscribed terror outfit JeM, and hybrid terrorist Sameer Ahmad Sofi of Shopian.
He said the operation was launched after they got specific inputs regarding militants’ movement in a vehicle on Manzgam-Aharbal axis.
“A special joint team of police and army was constituted. On Monday evening, a threewheeler was seen moving in suspicious conditions, which was chased and challenged. However, the terrorists travelling in the vehicle jumped out and resorted to indiscriminate firing towards the joint team of forces. The terrorists’ fire was retaliated effectively leading to an encounter,” the spokesperson said, adding that in the initial exchange of fire, two policemen got critically injured and were evacuated amid the heavy firing and airlifted to army’s Base Hospital in Srinagar where their condition is stable now.
The spokesperson said Pasha was active since five years in Kulgam-Shopian belt and had a history of terror crime cases, including attacks on security forces, abduction of forces personnel, civilian atrocities, IED attacks, and weapon looting. “He (Pasha) was also instrumental in recruitment of gullible youth into terror folds. It is pertinent to mention that the killed terrorists were part of the group that escaped after a brief gunfight in Chaki Samad area of Kulgam two days ago,” he added. Incriminating material, arms and ammunition have been recovered.
“The recovered material has been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes. Also, the vehicle used in commission of crime has been seized,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, the police have recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from a vehicle abandoned by a person in Anantnag, officials said here on Tuesday.
During a routine night domination near Mehmood Abad Bridge in Dooru on Monday, a vehicle was spotted which stopped after noticing the police party, raising suspicions.
“The police team challenged the driver of the vehicle by firing some aerial gunshots but he managed to escape taking the advantage of the darkness, abandoning the vehicle,” a police spokesperson said. During the search of the vehicle, a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including one AK-56, two pistols, two AK magazines, three pistol magazines, six hand grenades, 44 rounds of AK-47, 58 rounds of 7.9 mm and one sling were recovered.