JeM commander dead in J&K gunfight
The terrorist was killed a day after army, police and paramilitary forces launched a joint operation in Sopore’s Gulabad Arampora locality following intelligence inputs
SRINAGAR : A 23-year-old Jaish-eMohammad (JeM) commander was killed after a day-long gunbattle with security forces as part of an ongoing counter-insurgency operation in Jammu & Kashmir’s Sopore town on Wednesday, the police said.
The gunbattle is the latest in a series of firefights between militants and security forces in J&K since Saturday.
SRINAGAR: A 23-year-old Jaish-eMohammad (JeM) commander was killed after a day-long gunbattle with security forces as part of an ongoing counter-insurgency operation in Jammu & Kashmir’s Sopore town on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.
The gunbattle is the latest in a series of firefights between militants and security forces in Jammu & Kashmir since Saturday. The escalation in violence has coincided with the lockdown in the region as part of the nationwide measures taken to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The spokesman cited above said Sajjad Nawab Dar, the commander, was killed a day after the army, police and paramilitary forces launched a joint operation in Sopore’s Gulabad Arampora locality following intelligence inputs about the militant presence there
He said the locality was completely sealed and security forvated ces ensured that it was well lighted to prevent militants from escaping the area under the cover of darkness. The exchange of fire between the security forces and militants began on Wednesday morning and continued till late in the evening.
The spokesman said Dar was killed in the initial gunfight and was later identified as a local militant, who lived barely two to three kilometers away from the firefight site. He added while Dar was neutralised, the gunfight and the operation were underway. “The operation was launched on a credible input that two to four terrorists were present in the area.’’
The spokesman said Dar threatened and intimidated peace-loving citizens of Sopore and its peripheral areas. “He explored the opportunities to assault security forces and VIP rallies through his OGWs [overground workers] and also motilocal youth for the execution of grenade attacks against monetary benefits,” he said. He added the militant used modern approaches of communication with other conduits of the outfit via social media apps.
Police said Dar had joined militant ranks two years ago.
Earlier, the mobile internet was also suspended in Sopore as a precautionary measure in view of the gunbattle, which left a house where the militants were holed up completely damaged.
This was the third gunbattle between militants and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since Saturday.
Five commandos of an elite army special forces’ unit were killed in action along the Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan, in Jammu & Kashmir’s Keran sector on Sunday during an intense close-quarters battle with an equal number of infiltrators who were all eliminated.
The bodies of the five infiltrators were buried in a nearby forest after their DNA samples were taken.