J& K boy who didn’t quit terror despite father’s plea killed

◗ The situation in Khuwdani worsened with the news reaching the area that another local resident has been killed after being hit by a BSF vehicle

Srinagar: Eighteen- year- old Farhan Wani was one of the two Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed by security personnel in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Tuesday morning. The teenager had joined the militant ranks in mid- 2017. In November, the young militant’s father — Ghulam Mohammad Wani — put up a Facebook post urging him to relinquish violence and return home. The plea, however, went in vain.

A youth was killed and another wounded in Army firing on a violent mob in Khudwani area of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Kulgam district on Tuesday. The officials said that the Army opened fire when one of its camps in the area came under attack by a stone- pelting mob.

Kudwani erupted on Tuesday after the killing of two Hizbul-Mujahideen militants in a gunfight with security forces in Pahlipora Larnoo woods of Kokernag area in neighbouring Anantnag district. One of them Farhan Wani belonged to Khudwani. Teenager militant’s father Ghulam Muhammad Wani had recently through a Facebook post urged him to shun the path of violence and return home but he ignored the plea.

The police said that Farhan was a “hardcore stone- pelter turned militant” against whom several cases were registered in Kulgam police stations. “He was involved in many anti national and anti social activities,” it added.

The situation in Khuwdani worsened with the news reaching the area that another local resident has been killed after being hit by a Border Security Force ( BSF) vehicle in Vessu area of Kulgam. The police said that the BSF driver has been taken into custody and his vehicle seized “with the help of BSF officials”.

The officials said that the security forces launched an operation in Pahlipora Larnoo village of Kokernag at dawn following input about the presence of militants. After a brief exchange of fire, the militants fled into nearby woods. But the reinforcements soon arrived.

The operation was still underway as reports last came in.

— AFP Australian Commonwealth Games sprinter Craig Burns ( right) and fiance Luke Sullivan during their wedding ceremony in New South Wales, Australia, on Monday, minutes after midnight when the same sex- marriage law came into force on January 9.