Two Hizb militants killed trying to ambush police car

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed when they attacked a car carrying senior police officers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday.

The militants who were in a car ambushed the vehicle in which Awantipora and Pulwama superintendents of police and Awantipora ASP were returning after reviewing poll preparations with the chief electoral officer in Pulwama. “The militants came from one of the sides of the car and fired,” Awantipora SP Mohammad Zaid said.

A brief gunfight followed in which two militants, who were locals, were killed.

The bypolls to Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar in central Kashmir and Anantnag in south are to be held on April 9 and 12.

“After getting attacked, the police officers retaliated and we recovered bodies of two terrorists from a Maruti car. The third militant has probably managed to escape,” Kashmir inspector general of police SJM Gilani said at a media briefing in the evening.

There was confusion about the number of militants. The state’s top cop said both the militants involved in the ambush were killed.

Tweeting about the incident in the afternoon, director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said, “The daring officers’ retaliatory fire killed both the terrorists.”

IG Gilani said they had no information about the movement of militants. He identified one of them as Shahbaz Ahmad Wani alias Rais Kachru, a resident of Pulwama.

He did not confirm the identity of the second militant, who was named as Farooq Ahmad Hurrah, a resident of Naizneenpora in south Kashmir’s Shopian, by a police spokesperson.

Both belonged to the Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen, the spokesman said.

An AK-47 assault rifle and a self-loading rifle (SLR) were recovered from the two men. The SLR was snatched from a police picket in October, the officer said.

The Hizbul has warned people against participating in the polls. Srinagar seat fell vacant after Tariq Hameed Karra quit the Lok Sabha as well as the ruling People’s Democratic Party of which he was one of the founder-members. Karra joined the Congress in February. Anantnag election was necessitated after Mehbooba Mufti resigned from the Parliament to be the chief minister of the border state. She is now the Anantnag MLA.