Srinagar: The night long encounter that lasted for 20 hours in Chewa-Ullar village of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district ended Friday afternoon with the killing of third militant, officials said.
Police confirmed the killing of three militants in Tral gunfight on its official twitter handle. Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia also said that three militants were killed in the encounter.
The operation was launched yesterday afternoon after a specific tip off was received by the forces who cordoned off Chewa-Ullar village.
“In the initial gunfight, two militants were killed. Cordon remained on throughout the night and in the morning after fresh exchange of firing, another militant was killed in the afternoon,” the officials said.
As per local news agency KNO, the slain militants have been identified as Muhammad Qasim Shah alias Jugnu of Midoora; Basit Ahmad Parray, a resident of Laribal, and Haris Manzoor Bhat, a resident of Koil, Shikargah.
It said Muhammad Qasim Shah alias Jugnu Shah, is the son of Ghulam Muhammad Shah, who heads Tral unit of Hurriyat-G. Shah had joined militant ranks in 2017, leaving his B.Tech degree in Chandigarh midway.
A police spokesman in a statement said that arms and ammunition including two AK rifles, six AK magazine, five AK rounds, one pistol, a pistol magazine, four pistol rounds and other incriminating materials were recovered from the site of encounter.
“The bodies of the killed militants have been sent to north Kashmir for last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA,” police said.
“In case anyone claims the killed militants to be their kin, they can come forward for their identification and participation in last rites at Handwara,” the spokesman said.
Police also asked the people to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of explosive materials, if any.
Penitently, this is 12th encounter in south Kashmir in the month of June in which so far 33 militants have been killed. With the killing of three militants in today’s encounter, the number of militants killed this year have reached to 111.
Meanwhile, in the wake of encounter, mobile Internet services was snapped in Police Division Awantipora.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday claimed that there was no presence of Hizbul Mujahideen militants in the Tral area of Pulwama district now — the first time since the outbreak of militancy in the Valley in 1989.
The police’s claim came after three militants were on Friday killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in the Chewa Ular area of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
“After today’s #successful ops (operations), no presence of HM #terrorist in #Tral area. It has happened for first time since 1989,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said in a tweet on the Kashmir zone police’s official Twitter handle.
The Hizbul Mujahideen was a dominant force in Kashmir after the militancy broke out in the Valley as the outfit had several thousand cadres at the peak of insurgency. Several commanders of the outfit, including Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa, were from the Tral area.
