KO File Photo: Abid Bhat
Srinagar- Two local militants were killed in an overnight gunfight with government forces in Awantipora area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, police said Tuesday.
Around 5:30 pm Wednesday, police, army’s 42 RR and the personnel of CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in Rajpora village of Awantipora after receiving specific input about the presence of militants, a police spokesperson said.
During the search operation, he said, as the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party leading to an encounter.
In the ensuing encounter, the spokesperson said two local militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.
He identified them as Shahid Ahmad Rather of Tral linked with JeM and Umar Yousuf of Tukro, Shopian linked with LeT.
As per police records, the spokesperson said both the killed militants were categorized and part of groups involved in several cases including attacks on Police and security forces and “civilian atrocities”.
Besides other “terror crimes”, Rather, he said, was involved in killing of a woman Shakeela of Aripal and a government employee Javaid Ahmad of Lurgam Tral.
The spokesperson said Rather was also involved in motivating, recruiting local youth to join militant ranks and on his motivation Mohd Shafi Dar of Wagad Tral had joined militant ranks, before being killed in an operation in Kulgam on December 29 last year.
“Incriminating materials, arms & ammunition including 02 AK-47 rifles have been recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation,” he said.
“In this regard, a case under relevant sections of law has been registered and investigation has been initiated. People are requested to cooperate with Police till the area at encounter site is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any,” he added.
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