7 militants, soldier & civilian killed in Kashmir

Seven top Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad militants, a soldier and a civilian were killed during two encounters and subsequent protests in Shopian and Pulwama districts of southern Kashmir on Sunday.
The slain militants included five locals and a foreigner. The locals were identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, district commander of LeT for Shopian, Mohammad Abass Bhatt, district commander of HM for Shopian, Umar Majeed Ganai, district commander of HM for Kulgam, Mohammad Waseem Wagay and Khalid Farooq Malik, both affiliated to HM. Police said Bhatt was wanted for the killing of Lt Omar Fayaz last year and the recent spate of killing of alleged police and army informers, including a teenager who was decapitated.

Some days back, a photo of Ganai, who escaped from an encounter site in Batamaloo in Srinagar in August-—circulating on social media showed him in the city’s Lal Chowk.

Sunday’s gunfight took place in Batgund in Shopian involving Army’s 34 RR, Special Operation Group of J&K Police and CPRF.

While the encounter was on, Nazir Ahmad of 162 Territorial Army and Sepoy Sunil of 34 RR were injured. Later Ahmad, a former Ikhwan (progovt militia) commander, succumbed at the military hospital.

Meanwhile, in another brief exchange of fire in Khrew area of Pulwama, a JeM militant was killed.

During a protest following the encounter in Shopian, Nouman Ashraf Bhat, a 16-year-old boy from Bolos Kulgam, was injured and later died at a hospital. Many others were also injured as armed forces fired bullets and pellets to quell the protests.

“There are crackdowns almost every second day. I get scared when dogs bark as it signals the arrival of armed forces during the night,” a resident of Zainpora of Shopian told ET.

Soon after the killings, joint Hurriyat leadership called for complete shutdown in the valley on Monday.

This month, nearly 32 militants have been killed in encounter with armed forces.