Militant killed in Shopian encounter
Srinagar: A militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Shirmal area of the south Kashmir district after receiving specific inputs about the presence of militants there, police statement said.
It said as the forces were conducting searches, militants fired upon them. The forces retaliated, ensuing an encounter, in which one militant was killed, whose body was retrieved from the site of encounter.
Police identified the slain militant as Sajad Ahmad Bhat, son of Ghulam Qadir Bhat, resident of Badigam Aishmuqam Anantnag. Police said he was affiliated with proscribed Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.
As per police records, the killed militant was active since September 2020, and was involved in several cases.
Arms and ammunition including one pistol with magazine, one grenade and other incriminating materials were recovered from the encounter site, police said, adding the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other cases.
During the search operation one hideout was busted and later on destroyed, police said.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of law and investigation has been initiated.
Police also requested the people to cooperate with it till the area is completely sanitized and cleared off of all the explosive materials, if any.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a group of militants Wednesday hurled a grenade and opened fire on a team of security forces’ personnel in Pulwama district, but no damage was caused, police said.
The incident happened around 8:50 pm when the militants attacked a police and CRPF naka party near the SBI Rajpura Chowk branch in the south Kashmir district, a police official said.
There was no loss of life or injury in the incident, the official said, adding, the security forces retaliated the firing.
