3 ‘ ISIS’ militants killed in Kashmir encounter
Three militants allegedly owing allegiance to ISIS were killed in an encounter with security forces in Hakoora area of Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. Though there was no official confirmation on the ISIS link, Facebook was flooded with the three slain militants’ photos bearing the ISIS watermark and slogan.
Soon after the encounter, a photograph of one of the slain militants, Eisa Fazili, went viral on Facebook. In the photo, Eisa, a B. Tech student of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri, is wearing a Tshirt
with the ISIS emblem and standing near a banner of the outfit while carrying a gun.
Rejecting an ISIS link, Tehrik- ul- Mujahedin, a Kashmir militant outfit, issued a statement in the evening claiming that Eisa was its member and the two other slain
Hizbul militants belonged to Mujahideen.
The encounter sparked clashes between irate crowds and security forces in parts of Srinagar and southern Anantnag as thousands of mourners turned up at the funeral of Eisa in Srinagar’s Ahmed Nagar area. The security forces fired teargas to disperse the surging crowds which turned violent and hurled stones, witnesses said.
As a preventive measure to maintain peace, the authorities had ordered schools and colleges to shut in Srinagar district. Board exams in schools and university tests scheduled for Monday were deferred. Schools and colleges have now been ordered shut till Wednesday.
The images circulating on social media identified the slain men, all in their early 20s, as ISIS operatives and named them as Abu Zarr AlHindi, Abu Barra Al- Kashmiri and Eisa Ruhollah Khatab Al- Kashmiri.
Eisa’s father Naeem Fazili, a college principal, wrote on Facebook, “As per reliable sources, my son Eisa Fazili has left for heavenly abode.”
Family sources said that Eisa had left his Srinagar home a couple of months ago and joined the militants’ ranks.
“His father, through social media, had issued appeals to his son to return home, but in vain,” said a family source.
A police spokesperson said, “Militants hiding in Hakoora area fired upon a search party on Sunday night and the security forces retaliated to it. In the ensuing encounter, three militants were killed.”
He identified two slain militants as Eisa Fazili of Srinagar and Syed Owais of Kokernag ( Anantnag) and said that the identity of their third accomplice is being ascertained.
The spokesperson said that AK- 47 rifles, pistols and hand- grenades were recovered from the slain militants.
The police said that one of the slain militants was involved in attacking a police post in Soura area of Srinagar on February 25, leaving one cop dead.
The ISIS had claimed responsibility for that incident and posted on its website a photo of the snatched service weapon of Farooq Ahmed Yatoo, the policeman killed while guarding the residence of separatist Hurriyat Conference leader Fazl ul Haq’s Qureshi at Soura.
Reacting to the claim, the director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid had said that it was still a matter of investigation and that nothing with certainty could be said about the presence of the terror organisation in Kashmir.