Srinagar: Security forces shot dead two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants in an overnight encounter in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday.
One of the slain terrorists was involved in the killing of police constable Reyaz Ahmad earlier this month, a police spokesman said.
“On Sunday, at about 1745hrs, on a specific input generated by Kulgam Police regarding presence of terrorists in village Gundipora area of Pulwama, a joint cordon & search operation was launched by Pulwama Police, Army (55RR) and CRPF (182/183Bn) in the said area,” the spokesman said, adding, during the search operation, as the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists hidden in the residential house of one Nazir Ahmad Mir son of Mohd Sultan Mir fired indiscriminately which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
He said that to avoid any collateral damage due to darkness, the operation was suspended during the night hours and in the wee hours the operation was resumed.
“In the ensuing encounter two terrorists identified as Abid Hussain Shah son of Late Mushtaq Ahmad Shah resident of Monghama Pulwama and Saqib Azad Sofi son of Azad Ahmad Sofi resident of Amshipora Shopian were killed. They were affiliated with proscribed terror outfit JeM,” said the spokesman.
He said that both the bodies were retrieved alongwith incriminating materials including 02 AK rifles.
As per police records, both the killed terrorists were categorized terrorists and were part of groups involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on Police/SF and civilian atrocities. Pertinently, the killed terrorist Abid Shah was involved in recent killing of unarmed policeman Ct. Reyaz Ahmad at his residential house at Gadoora area of Pulwama on 13th May 2022, said the spoksman.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Kashmir Vijay Kumar congratulated the forces for carrying out the anti-terrorist operation in a professional manner without any collateral damage.
He also appreciated the joint team for tracking and neutralising the terrorists involved in the recent killing of policeman in Pulwama.
While interacting with the media, Kumar said that police have succeeded to a large extent to prevent the youth from taking up the arms and are working on multi-dimensional fronts to prevent local terrorist recruitment, those who motivate and lure young boys towards terrorism are being booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
“We are also tracking new recruits through technical surveillance and bringing them back,” the IGP said.
