CIVILIAN, 2 MILITANTS KILLED IN KASHMIR
People alleged man was killed in targeted fire
SRINAGAR: Two militants were killed while as many soldiers were wounded in a firefight at Kundallan village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday, the state police chief said.
A civilian was killed and scores were injured when the police used force to disperse residents as they tried to break the cordon around the gunfight scene to help the militants escape, a police officer said.
A police statement said the firefight was triggered after the Army’s counter-insurgency wing, Rashtriya Rifles, and Jammu and Kashmir police’s Special Operation Group (SOG) launched an operation in Kundallan following a tip-off about the militant presence there. It said the militants fired on the forces as the searches were going on and triggered the exchange of fire.
S P Vaid, the police chief, said dead bodies of two militants were recovered from the firefight site. “The militants were from Jaishe-mohammad militant group.’’
The police statement said that civilians trapped in nearby houses were evacuated before the full-fledged operation was launched.
“After civilians were evacuated, two militants were killed in the operation. The militants were identified as Sameer Ahmad Sheikh, a local, and Babar from Pakistan,’’ the statement said. It added Babar was designated as a commander and was involved in attacks on the security forces.
The statement said Sheikh, a school drop-out, was from Shopian’s Rawalpora and had joined the group in April.
Bullets and pellets were used to disperse the protestors as they tried to break the cordon, a police officer said. One of the injured protesters, Tamsheel Ahmad Khan, a resident of neighbouring Vehil village, died on his way to a Srinagar hospital.
Residents, however, alleged that targeted fire killed Khan. “He had a bullet injury on his head,’’ said Khan’s neighbour, Abdul Rashid. He said Khan was a Class-9 student, who is survived by his parents and two siblings. protests
erupted at Vehil when Khan’s body was sent back to the village for burial.
Shopian’s chief medical officer Abdul Rashid said they received 123 injured people at different hospitals and health centres from the firefight scene. “Six injured have bullet injuries while the rest have pellet and
other injuries. Among the injured, 17 have suffered pellet injuries to their eyes.’’
Muhammad Ishaq Naikoo, the father of Zeenat-ul-islam Naikoo, who has recently joined the militant ranks in Shopian, died of a heart attack amid rumours that his son was among the militants holed up in Kundallan.