Srinagar: Three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants were killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in Budgam district, police said on Friday.
The encounter, as already reported, broke out in Budgam’s Zolwa village late on Thursday.
Three militants were killed in the exchange of fire with the security forces, the official said.
“All three slain terrorists were affiliated with JeM terror outfit. Three AK 56 rifles and other incriminating material were recovered from the site of the encounter,” said Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar.
While one of the militant has been identified as Waseem from Srinagar, the identities of the other two are being ascertained, he said.
Giving details about the operation, a police spokesman in a statement said that based on a specific input generated by police regarding presence of militants in village Zolwa Chadoora area of Budgam, a joint cordon and search operation was launched yesterday evening by Police and Army (50RR) in the said area.
“During the search operation, as the presence of terrorists got ascertained they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter. Later on, CRPF also joined the operation.
“However in order to evacuate the civilians trapped around the encounter site, the joint team ensured the evacuation of all civilians to the safer places. Besides, to avoid any collateral damage due to darkness, the operation was suspended during night hours and in the wee hours the operation resumed, resulting in the elimination of three terrorists linked with proscribed terror outfit JeM.
“During encounter one Army Officer received minor splinter injury,” said the spokesman.
He said, “One of the killed terrorist has been identified as Waseem Mir son of Ghulam Qadir Mir resident of Nowgam Srinagar who was active since December 2020. As per reliable sources and documents recovered, the other two killed terrorists appear to be foreign terrorists, however further identification is being ascertained”.
As per police records, Waseem was a categorized militant and part of group involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities.
“Several terror crime cases were registered against him. He was involved in killing of Inspector Parvaiz Ahmad on 22-06-2021. He was also involved in grenade attack on CRPF Bunker near Aali Masjid Chowk at Eidgah Srinagar in which 01 civilian and 01 police personnel were injured. Besides other terror crimes, he was also involved in brainwashing and motivating the youth of Central Kashmir to join terror folds,” said the spokesman.
Incriminating materials, arms & ammunition including 3 AK-56 rifles were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation, he said.
The spokesman said that IGP Kashmir while appreciating role of joint team for conducting successful operation without any collateral damage said that with the killing of Waseem, “only 01 terrorist hailing from Srinagar is left out now who will be either arrested or neutralised at the earliest”.
