SRINAGAR: Five militants including an assistant professor of Kashmir University and a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander were killed early on Sunday in a police and military operation in Kashmir’s Shopian, sparking protests from locals in which five civilians were killed and 25 were injured during clashes with security forces.

The slain militants were identified as Kashmir University sociology professor Mohammad Rafi, Hizbul commander Saddam Padder, and three others, Adil, Bilal Mohan and Touseef.

Padder was among the 10 militants who had posed with then-hm commander Burhan Wani in a picture that went viral on social media and is said to have gave traction to militancy in Kashmir. With Padder’s death, all the militants in that photo have now been killed by security forces, Shopian’s senior superintendent of police Shalindra Mishra said, with the exception of Tariq Pandit, who had surrendered in May 2016.

Wani’s killing in July 2016 had sparked one of the most intense periods of tension in Kashmir in nearly two decades, leading to more than 100 deaths in violent protests over the year.

Padder, a school drop-out in his twenties, was a Category A-plus militant with a ₹10 lakh bounty on his head.

Early on Sunday morning, army, police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) cordoned Badigam, a village in Shopian, after intelligence inputs about the presence of militants.

Police said that the hiding militants opened fire, triggering the encounter, in which a policeman and a soldier were wounded.

Assistant professor Rafi, who was reported missing on Friday, had joined the militants just 36 hours before the encounter, police said.

Ashiq Hussain letters@hindustantimes.com

Courtesy: Hindustan Times 07  May 2018