Srinagar: Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Tuesday, police said.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Turkawangam area of Shopian in south Kashmir this morning after receiving specific information about the presence of militants in the area, a police official said.
He said an encounter ensued as militants fired upon a search party and the forces retaliated.
In the exchange of firing, three militants were killed, he said.
The identity and group affiliation of the slain militants are being ascertained.
Two AK rifles and one INSAS rifle have been recovered from the spot, police said.
While police said that the identity of the slain militants was yet to be ascertained, some sources identified one of the the slain as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen district Commander Zubair Wani of Turkawangam, Kamran Manhas, nephew of former PDP MLC Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, a resident of Shadaab Kareeva and Muneeb-ul-Haq of Sugan Zainapora Shopian.
Giving details, a defence spokesperson, in a statement issued here today, said that on the intervening night of 15/16 June, based on specific input received from JKP about presence of three unidentified militants, a joint operation was launched Turkwangom, District Shopian.
“A cordon was quickly established around the target site in early morning hours on 16 Jun 20. After the cordon was in place, an appeal was made to the hiding terrorists to surrender and give up the path of violence. The terrorists in turn fired on the Security Forces, and the first contact was established,” said the spokesman.
He said that in the firefight that ensued, three HM militants were neutralized. Two AK-47 and one INSAS Rifle along with other war like stores were recovered from the encounter site.
Meanwhile, IGP Kashmir today said that the militancy in south Kashmir was almost wiped out and focus will now be shifted now to north Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference, IGP Vijay Kumar, while commenting on today’s Shopian encounter said the killed militants were affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen.
“It was a clean operation. No collateral damage has taken place. The operation was launched after Srinagar police received inputs about the presence of militants there,” he said.
On being asked about a audio clip of a youth from Shopian who accused a police officer of forcing him to become militant, he said, ” The youth has a Jamaat background and the allegations leveled by him were investigated and found baseless.”
He also said that militants involved in the killing of the Pandit Sarpanch have been identified.
