Srinagar: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Adil Parray, “who was involved in the recent killings of two police personnel” was killed in a “chance” encounter with a “small team” of police here on Sunday, taking the number of terrorists killed in the last 24 hours to five, police said here.
“LeT #terrorist Adil Parray of #Ganderbal who was involved in #killing of 02 JKP personnel Gh Hassan Dar in Sangam and Saifulla Qadri in Anchar Soura and injuring a 9 year old girl, killed in a chance #encounter with a small team of police,” Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar wrote on Twitter.
The encounter took place in the Kreesbal Palpora Sangam area here.
Parray’s killing took the number of terrorists killed in the last 24 hours to five and the number those killed in the Valley so far this year to 100, police said.
One terrorist was killed in Kulgam, while another was killed in Pulwama on Saturday. On Sunday morning, two more terrorists were killed in the Pulwama encounter — taking the number of terrorists killed in the operation to three.
A police spokesperson said “acting on specific information regarding the presence of terrorists in Pulwama’s Drabgam village, a cordon-and-search operation was launched by the security forces in the area on Saturday.
“As the security personnel approached the suspected spot, the terrorists hiding there fired indiscriminately upon them, which was retaliated effectively, leading to an encounter,” he added.
In the ensuing gunbattle, “three local terrorists of proscribed outfit LeT were killed and their bodies retrieved from the site of the encounter,” the spokesperson said.
He identified the slain as Junaid Ahmad Sheergojri of Gadoora in Pulwama, Fazil Nazir Bhat of Drabgam in Pulwama and Irfan Ahmad Malik of Arabal Nikas in Pulwama.
According to police records, all three were part of groups involved in several cases, including attacks on police and other security forces and civilian atrocities, the spokesperson said.
“Sheergojri, along with his associate Abid Hussain Shah of Monghama in Pulwama, who was killed on May 30, was involved in the killing of police personnel Reyaz Ahmad at his house on May 13,” he added.
“He was also involved in the June 02 attack on labourers at a brick kiln in Chadoora on the outskirts of the Pulwama-Budgam axis, in which one labourer was killed and others were injured,” the spokesperson said.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition, including two AK-47 rifles and a pistol, were recovered from the encounter site. All the recovered materials have been taken into the case records for further investigation, the spokesperson informed.
In this regard, a case under relevant sections of law has been registered and investigation has been initiated.
“People are requested to cooperate with police till the area at the encounter site is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any,” spokesperson said.
He also said that IGP Kumar congratulated the security forces for carrying out the operation in a “professional manner and without any collateral damage”.
He also lauded them for tracking and neutralising the militants involved in the recent killing of police personnel in Pulwama.
Earlier, the IGP said “99 terrorists were killed in the valley so far this year. With Parray’s killing, the number has gone up to 100.”
