E-Paper
5 terrorists, including 2 linked to soldier’s killing, shot dead
14-year-old Class 10 student among the terrorists killed by forces in separate encounters in J&K’s Anantnag and Shopian districts
Security forces on Sunday shot dead five terrorists, including two involved in the killing of a jawan in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, in two separate encounters, police said.
While two terrorists affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed in Anantnag, three others from the Al-Badr outfit were killed in Shopian district.
The gunfight in Anantnag erupted on Saturday evening after a joint team of police, Army and the CRPF began a search in Semthan village of Bijbehara area following specific information about the presence of the militants in a house.
Officials said the terrorists were given an opportunity to surrender but they fired indiscriminately on the security forces. The operation was halted in the night after “all the civilians trapped in the gunfire” were rescued, the officials said.
“Two terrorists were eliminated who were responsible for the killing of Havildar Mohd Saleem Akhoon of Territorial Army on Friday,” said public relations officer of Army’s 15 Corps Lt Col Emron Musavi.
The terrorists were identified as Towseef Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Takia Maqbool Shah Bijbehara and Aamir Hussain Ganie, a resident of Goriwan Bijbehara, Anantnag.
The two were affiliated with the proscribed outfit LeT, officials said, adding that they were responsible for shooting at Akhoon, who was on leave, outside his residence at Goriwan in Bijbehara area of the district on Friday. Akhoon succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
“They were also involved in threatening and intimidating the civilian population of the area and enticing the young boys to join terror ranks,” the police spokesman said.
In a separate encounter, three terrorists, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in the orchards of Reban Bandpawa area of Shopian district.
A police spokesperson said that the encounter began on Saturday evening when the forces received information about the presence of terrorists in the orchards of Reban Bandpawa area of Shopian.
While they were given an opportunity to surrender, the terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the search party, the spokesperson said.
“In the initial retaliatory firing, one terrorist was killed, but the operation was suspended to give the trapped terrorists another chance to surrender. The joint teams exercised maximum restraint and facilitated the presence of family members of a holed up terrorist to encounter site so as to persuade him to surrender,” he said.
While one of the slain terrorists was the minor, the second one was identified as Aasif Ahmad Ganai, officials said. Official are yet to identify the third terrorist.
The spokesperson said that they were affiliated with the proscribed outfit Al-Badr and were involved in many “terror crime cases”.
Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar made an appeal to the youngsters to “shun the path of violence”.
“Once again [we] make a fervent appeal to all misguided youth who have joined terror ranks to shun the path of violence and return to mainstream,” Kumar said.
In the past three days, 12 terrorists have been killed across south Kashmir.
On Friday, seven terrorists were killed in two separate encounters in South Kashmir. In one of the encounters, the chief of Ansar-ul-Gazhawat-ul-Hind was killed.
