
Hizbul Mujahideen behind army officer Ummer Fayaz’s killing: J-K police
The Jammu and Kashmir police have held a local module of the Hizbul Mujahideen responsible for the killing of a 22-year-old Army officer in South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday night.
Inspector general of police Javeed Gillani said investigators have recovered two empty INSAS rifle cartridge cases used for the crime. A probe was on to check if they were same cartridges snatched from policemen a few days ago, he added.
Gillani, however, refused to disclose the names of those behind Rajputana Rifles officer Ummer Fayaz’s abduction and murder. “A local Hizbul Mujahideen module was involved. Though we have identified the militants, their names cannot be revealed immediately,” he said.
Lieutenant Fayaz was kidnapped from a relative’s house in the midst of a wedding ceremony, and shot dead the same night. Witnesses said the army officer was taken away while he was sitting with the bride, even as more militants waited outside the house.
A farmer’s son, Fayaz had been commissioned into the Indian army in December 2016.
“Although police are yet receive the post-mortem report, preliminary examinations revealed that there were no torture marks on his body,” Gillani said.
This was the most recent incident in a series of militant attacks witnessed by the strife-torn state since the beginning of this year. Five policemen and two bank guards were shot down by militants in an attempt to rob a cash van at the beginning of this month. On April 24, militants shot the PDP’s district president for Pulwama, Abdul Gani Dar, with an assault rifle from a close range. A former public prosecutor affiliated with the National Conference was also killed in Shopian district the same month.
According to police, five political workers have been attacked in the Valley since March.

Jammu and Kashmir police have identified Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants involved in two bank robberies across south Kashmir’s Pulwama district recently. “The two militants involved in the Kulgam killings have been identified as Umar Majeed and Farooq Ahmad. Their posters have been put up across south Kashmir,” said a senior officer.
Although police claimed that the LeT was involved in the May 1 attack on the cash van, Hizbul Mujahideen owned up to the crime. The outfit claimed that they did not do it for the cash, or kill the bank guards.
Police said the lines separating militant groups have blurred, and they are now working together against the establishment. “These militants function independently, and even handlers from across the border don’t have a lot of control over them,” said a senior officer.
Police said that of the 200 militants active in Kashmir, around 88 are local youth hailing from South Kashmir. “These home-grown, self-trained militants are armed mostly with rifles taken from policemen. They are a paranoid lot who need to create an environment of terror to survive,” said Gillani.

Supreme Court ends bail of over 2,000 prisoners given on Covid-19 ground
- On October 29 last year, the top court had stayed a direction passed on October 20 by the Delhi High Court directing 2,318 undertrial prisoners to surrender in a phased manner.

Congress divided over alliance with cleric Siddiqui in Bengal
- Deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, accused the party’s Bengal president and Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdury of diluting the party’s core ideology and the secularism by allying with Abbasuddin Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF).

1.28 lakh people over 60 years get first dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Alliance Air launches flights from Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur under UDAN

Covid-19 in Maharashtra: How various districts fared since Feb 24

Harsh Vardhan says scientific community 'rose to occasion' when Covid-19 hit

BSF soldier injured in attack by miscreants in Tripura

IMA pushes for free Covid-19 vaccine, make online portal more user friendly

Adityanath heads for Malda to begin poll campaign in Bengal
- This will be the first of the many public meetings Adityanath is scheduled to address in Bengal where the BJP is looking to unseat the led TMC.

'FASTags will save ₹20,000 crore per year on fuel': Gadkari
- "Toll collection through electronic tolling has reached 93 per cent during the last fortnight after the FASTag was made mandatory," Gadkari said.

India sending rice, HCQ tablets as humanitarian assistance to Madagascar

News updates from HT: Chhattisgarh police recruit 13 transgender constables

80-year-old rides bike 70 km to get first shot of Covid vaccine in Ranchi
- The senior citizen said he would return on Tuesday with his wife on Tuesday o she could be administered her vaccine.

Finance ministry considers cutting taxes on petrol, diesel: Report

Kisan panchayat part of AAP's plan to make its presence felt in Uttar Pradesh
- The AAP has already announced it would contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly.