Anil Raina  

Forces rubbish reports of a civilan death, which had surfaced after encounter on Friday night. Five terrorists, including a top commander, were killed in a joint operation by the security forces in Kiloora of South Kashmir’s Shopian district. One civilian was also killed and two others injured after army opened fire on protesters in Ganowpora village of Shopian, after the funeral prayers of a militant Arshad Ahmad Khan in Ganowpora village. The killed civilian is identified as Bilal Ahmad Khan, who was declared dead on arrival.

According to locals, when some terrorists appeared in the funeral of the slain terrorist, the army reached the area prompting resistance from the locals. “Locals resisted army’s presence, who then opened fire in which some civilians were hit,” he said.

“In Kiloora area of Shopian, security forces jointly launched searches after it was able to track a group of terrorists in the area on Friday night,” said police spokesperson Manoj Pandita.

“During the search, terrorists hiding inside a house fired on the search party. The fire was retaliated thereby establishing contact with the terrorists leading to an encounter,” he said.

He said in the ensuing encounter, five terrorists were killed. Initially, it came across that one civilian had lost his life in cross-firing, but subsequent investigation confirmed that no such civilian death had occurred and the subsequent reports were termed inaccurate. Pertinently the encounter later took place in an open area as the hiding terrorists, taking advantage of darkness came out of the house and fired indiscriminately on security forces.

Arms and ammunition were also seized from the site of encounter. Police have registered a case and initiated investigation into the matter. Forces recovered bodies of all the five terrorists including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander identified as Umar Malik.

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Courtesy: Mirror: 05 Aug, 2018