Srinagar: Four terrorists were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday, police said.
Three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists were killed in the Drach area of Shopian, while a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was killed in the Moolu area of the south Kashmir district, they said.
“Three local #terrorists linked with proscribed #terror outfit JeM killed in #encounter at Drach #Shopian,” Additional Director General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said on Twitter.
He said a local terrorist of the proscribed outfit LeT was killed in an encounter in Moolu.
In the Drach operation, two of the three killed terrorists were identified as Hanan Bin Yaqoob and Jamshed, Kumar said.
They were involved in the killing of Special Police Officer (SPO) Javed Dar on October 02 at Pinglana in Pulwama and a migrant labourer from West Bengal on September 24 in the district, he said.
Sharing details, police spokesman said yesterday night police along with troops of Army’s 44RR and CRPF 14 Bn launched a joint cordon and search operation in village Drach Keegam area of Shopian following an input regarding presence of terrorists in the area.
“As the joint search party proceeded towards the suspected spot the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the search party. The joint party retaliated effectively leading to an encounter,” spokesman said.
He said in the ensuing encounter, three local terrorists linked with proscribed terror outfit JeM were killed and their bodies were recovered from the site of encounter.
They have been identified as Zubair Maqbool Wani, resident of Doompora Keegam; Jamsheed Ahmad Magray, resident of Rajpora, and Hanaan Bin Yaqoob alias Saqib, resident of Kareemabad Pulwama.
As per police records, “all the killed terrorists were categorized terrorists and were involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on Police/SFs and civilian atrocities. Terrorists Hanan Bin Yaqoob and Jamsheed were involved in recent killing of SPO Javed Dar on 02/10/2022 at Pinglana area of Pulwama. They were also involved in killing of an outside labourer from West Bengal in Gadoora. Besides, terrorist Jamshed was involved in Ratnipora terror attack where he shot and injured two outside labourers,” police spokesman said.
In the wee hours Wednesday (today), on a specific input regarding presence of terrorist at Moolu area of Shopian, police along with Army’s 44 RR and CRPF 178 Bn launched a joint cordon and search operation in the said area.
As the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorist fired indiscriminately which was retaliated, resulting the elimination of a local terrorist. He has been identified as Arif Rashid Wani, resident of Shirmal, spokesman said.
He said as per police records the killed terrorist was a categorised terrorist linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT. He was involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on police, security forces and civilian atrocities.
Arms and ammunition including four AK series rifles, one pistol, eight AK magazines, four pistol magazines and other incriminating materials were recovered from both the encounter sites. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation, police spokesman said.
He said cases under relevant sections of law have been registered at respective police stations and further investigations have been initiated with regards to both these encounters.
“People are requested to cooperate with police till the areas at encounter sites are completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any,” spokesman said.
