Ashiq Hussain   

Three militants, including an aide to former Hizbul Mujahideen leader Zakir Musa, were killed in two separate gunfights in Kashmir’s Kulgam and Pulwama districts on Tuesday.

22 militants, four securitymen killed since Nov 15

Three militants, including an aide to former Hizbul Mujahideen leader Zakir Musa, were killed in two separate gunfights in south Kashmir’s Kulgam and Pulwama districts on Tuesday. A soldier was also killed in the Kulgam encounter.

At least 33 people, including 22 militants and four security men, have been killed in the Kashmir Valley since November 15. Twenty of these militants, most of them locals, have been killed in the past seven days (since Wednesday) alone.

Sapper Prakash Jadhav of 1 Rashtriya Rifles was fatally injured in the initial exchange of fire with militants in Redwani area of Kulgam which ended with the killing of two Lashkar-eTaiba militants Ajaz Ahmad Makroo and Waris Ahmad Malik, both locals.

Police spokesman Manoj Kumar said that the gunfight had started in the early of the day hours after a joint team of police, army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) started a cordon-and-search operation in the Redwani area.

“Besides, two jawans of 163 Bn CRPF sustained minor injuries in the encounter,” he said.

Hours later in Pulwama, Shakir Hassan Dar was killed after a joint party of security forces started searches early in the morning based on information about the presence of the militant in the Hafoo Reshipora area of Tral.

Kumar said Dar was part of the Zakir Musa group of terrorists and had a history of terrorist crimes since 2015. “He was wanted by the law for his complicity in series of terror crimes including attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities,” he said.

Zakir Musa, who quit the Hizbul Mujahideen in May,2017 , was then chosen as the head of Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind by an al-Qaedaaffiliated propaganda channel.

The police spokesman also said that the militants killed in Kulgam were involved in many “terror crimes”.

“Ajaz Makroo as per police records had a long history of terror crime records since 2017. He was a close associate of terrorist commanders Naveed Jat and Azad Dada…Similarly, Waris also figured in several terror crime cases,” the spokesman said.

A large quantity of arms and ammunition, including rifles, were recovered from the encounter sites in Tral and Kulgam.The police requested people not to venture towards encounter sites until the sites are completely cleared of all the explosives .

On Sunday, an army soldier and seven militants were killed in two encounters between security forces and militants in the state’s Shopian and Pulwama districts. A teenager lost his life during clashes between security forces and a group of youngsters near the encounter site in Shopian.

Among the dead in Shopian was Abass Bhat, a militant accused of decapitating a 19-yearold man on November 17 and killing army officer Lt Omar Fayaz, 22, in May 2017.

Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a body which tracks human rights violations, states that at least 520 people have been killed in J&K this year, of which are 144 civilians, 234 militants and 142 members of the armed forces and police.

ashiq.hussain@htlive.com

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 28th Nov, 2018