KO Photo By Abid Bhat
Ajaz Ali
Srinagar: Two local militants of Al-Badr were killed in an encounter with government forces in Khanmoh area of Srinagar outskirts, police said on Monday.
Wasim Bashir Pandit of Kakapora and Mudasir Ahmad Khanday of Bargam Awantipora were killed in an anti-militancy operation launched by Special Operations Group (SOG) of police, army’s 50 RR and the personnel of CRPF laid a siege around Khanmoh area on Monday, a police spokesperson said.
He said both the militants were affiliated with Al-Badr.
“As per police records both the militants were part of groups involved in several crimes including planning and executing of attacks on police and security forces,” the police spokesperson said.
He also claimed recovery of arms, ammunition and other incriminating materials from the encounter site
“All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other crimes,” he added.
Divulging details of the encounter, the police spokesperson said that a joint cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched on a specific input of the police regarding presence of militants in the area.
“During the search operation, as the presence of militants got ascertained they were given repeated opportunities to surrender, however they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” he said.
In the ensuing encounter, he said, two militants were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.
The police spokesperson said that the last rites of the killed militants shall be performed after conducting medico-legal formalities and the nearest family members of local militants shall be allowed to participate in the last rites.
“In this connection police have registered a case under relevant sections of law and investigation has been initiated. People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared off of all the explosive materials, if any,” he said.
However, army in a separate statement issued this evening claimed that the two militants were associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad outfits.
An army spokesperson further said that initially the search operation was launched in Lilhar Pulwama on Sunday and after fresh leads CASO was started in Khanmoh area on Monday.
“The Security Forces took extreme caution during the fire fight and there was no collateral damage,” he added.
Meanwhile, reports said that the two storey house where the two militants were hiding, suffered major damages during the firefight.
Scores of people converged at the gunfight site as soon as the forces retreated from the area. Many villagers, including women were seen wailing after the encounter culminated with the killing of the two local militants and left a trail of destruction, reports said.
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