Srinagar: Two locals militants affiliated with Lashker-e-Toiba outfit were killed in a gunfight between militants and security forces in Kanji Ullar area in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday.
A senior police official told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that acting on a specific input, joint team of police, Army’s 34 RR and CRPF after receiving information about the presence of militants launched search operation in the area.
He said that as the joint team of forces intensified searches towards suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon the party, which was retaliated, thus triggering an encounter.
He said that during exchange of fire two local militants affiliated with LeT were killed and both were involved in several militancy related cases.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar said that one among the slain militant Jan Mohd was involved in killing of Vijay Kumar a bank Manager from Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, the police spokesman in a statement to KNO said that on specific information regarding presence of militants in village Kanji Ullar area of Shopian, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, Army (34RR) and CRPF (178Bn) in the area.
He said that during the search operation, as the joint party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated effectively leading to an encounter, in the ensuing encounter, two militants were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter. They have been identified as Jan Mohd Lone resident of Braripora Shopian and Tufail Nazir Ganie resident of Ramnagri Shopian.
“As per police records, both the killed militants were linked with LeT and were part of groups involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on Police/SFs and civilian atrocities,” the statement said. “While interacting with media IGP Kashmir shared that killed militant Jan Mohd Lone was involved in recent killing of Bank Manager Vijay Kumar in Kulgam on 02/06/2022. He also revealed that Jan Mohd was earlier working as OGW of LeT’s district commander Adil Ramzan and he killed Bank manager on the direction of said LeT commander. After this incident, he actively joined militant ranks. Since then we have been tracking him.”
It’s pertinent to mention here that one of the killed militants Tufail Nazir had earlier escaped from two encounters at Chaki Samad area of Kulgam on 09/04/2022 and Khur-Batpora area of Kulgam on 11/04/2022, police said.
It said that arms and ammunition including 01 AK-47 rifle and 01 Pistol were recovered from the site of encounter. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other crimes,” the police spokesman said.
IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar congratulated the joint teams for carrying out the anti-militancy operation in professional manner without any collateral damage. “He also appreciated the efforts of Police to track down and neutralise the terrorist involved in the recent killing of Bank Manager,” the police spokesman said.
In this regard, 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—(KNO)
