4 militants killed in Shopian encounter
With this, the number of Hizbul militants killed in the district in the last 24 hours has gone up to nine
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Four militants were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces at Pinjora in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Monday, police said.
The gunbattle was triggered after security forces launched an operation in the village, which is 12km from Reban village, where five terrorists were gunned down in a separate counter-insurgency operation on Sunday.
“...Four militants were killed in the operation which ended on Monday afternoon at Pinjora,” said inspector general of police (Kashmir). He added the nine militants killed in Shopian since Sunday belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen and both the operations were clean and there was no collateral damage.
The house, where the four militants were holed up in Pinjora, was damaged in the gunbattle.
Police have not revealed the identities of the nine militants but they are believed to be from Shopian and neighbouring Pulwama district.
The fresh gunbattle is the latest in a series of firefights since March in which dozens of militants, including Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo, have been killed. Naikoo carried a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on his head and was killed in Pulwama district on May 6.
22 TERRORISTS, INCLUDING SIX TOP COMMANDERS, KILLED IN TWO WEEKS: J&K DGP
Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbag Singh said 22 terrorists, including six commanders, have been killed over the past two weeks in nine different operations. He said this year 88 terrorists have been killed in around 36 operations even as Pakistan Army continues to aid and abet terrorism in the UT.
“[The] six top commanders were involved in the attacks and killings of innocent civilians, police, and security forces. They all had a long list of crimes. They also killed a young SPO [special police officer] Khushboo...”
He said out of the 22, 18 were killed in three districts of South Kashmir—Pulwama, Kulgam, and Shopian. Singh added the rest were gunned down in Rajouri and Poonch. “Another terrorist who infiltrated was killed in Kalakote sector. This shows that Pakistan and its agencies are trying to infiltrate terrorists from all sides from Rajouri, Poonch, Kashmir, and the international border.”
Singh said an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack was foiled along the JammuSrinagar highway on May 28. “The person Abdul Rehman alias Fauji Bhai, who was affiliated with HM [Hizbul Mujahideen] and developed this IED, was also killed,’’ he said
Fauji Bhai was killed along with two others in a counter-insurgency operation on Wednesday last. A native of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, Fauji Bhai was an Afghan war veteran and had been active in Kashmir since 2017.
Singh said terrorists were still trying to make IEDs and they remained alert to foil these attacks. “With alertness of the security forces, we also prevented Pulwama-like terror attack by recovering an IED planted in a car,” he added.
The DGP said around 230 terrorists were active in Kashmir. He said, “Similarly, more than 150 militants are waiting at the launch pads across the LoC to infiltrate into this side of the border.”
Singh said Pakistan proxies, who try to misguide Kashmiri youth, will not be spared.