Srinagar, Jun 22: Security forces today killed four militants, including chief of the Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) Dawood Ahmed Sofi, in a remote mountainous village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
A policeman and a civilian were also killed in the exchange of fire between militants and government forces at Khiram village of Srigufwara, police said.
The operation began before dawn at Khiram, 23 km from the main national highway and overlooking the tourist town of Pahalgam, after intelligence reports suggested the presence of militants in the area, police spokesman said.
He said one of the militants killed was identified as Dawood Ahmed Sofi, who headed the ISIS affiliate ISJK and is believed to be involved in several militancy-related cases, he said.
The other three, also believed to be with the ISJK, were identified as Aadil Rehman Bhat, Mohammad Ashraf Itoo and Majid Manzoor Dar, said Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Swayam Prakash Pani, who was supervising the operations.
He said teams from state police, army and CRPF made every effort to prevent collateral damage.
Giving details of the encounter, police said a joint patrol of government forces was fired at as they advanced towards a house where the militants were hiding. This resulted in the death of a policeman, Ashiq Hussain, and a civilian identified as 53-year-old Mohammed Yousuf Rather, son of Gull Mohammad Rather, resident of Nowshahar Khiram.
In the encounter that followed, four militants were killed and some civilians injured in the crossfire, an official said.
Giving details about Sofi, police said he was 33-years-old, a resident of Srinagar’s Zainakoot area and was involved in several stone pelting cases in the area before he joined the militant outfit ISJK.
Police said he is believed to be involved in the murder of Assistant Sub-Inspector Ghulam Mohammad and Head Constable Naseer Ahmad at Bagh-e-Ali Mardan Khan in Zadibal and also in the killing of a policeman and snatching his rifle at Tengpora Batamaloo in May 2016 besides other militant attacks.
“Sofi was initially known to be affiliated with the Tehrek-ul-Mujahideen outfit. Later, the group aligned itself with the ideology of the ISIS and renamed the group ISJK,” officials said.
Majid Manzoor Dar of Talangam Pulwama also joined the group and remained active along with Aadil Rehman Bhat, who belonged to Shettipora village in Bijbehara, and Mohammad Ashraf Itoo from Hatigam village in Srigufwara.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out near the encounter site when a group of youth started pelting stones on the government forces, who used force on the protestors and several civilians were injured, a police official said.
Clashes also erupted between the government forces and youth amid a shutdown in south Kashmir’s Pulwama township.
Reports said that as soon as the word spread about the killing of militants including a local militant (Majid Manzoor Dar of Talangam Pulwama) in the Srigufwara gunfight, scores of youth took to the streets at multiple locations and clashed with forces deployed in the area.
“While the youth pelted the forces with stones and bricks, the latter responded by firing pellets and tear gas,” they said.
All shops, business establishments and educational institutes remained closed in the town.
Massive clashes also erupted in Zainakote area of Srinagar after the news about the killing of ISJK chief Dawood Ahmad Sofi (Dawood Salafi), a local resident, in a gunfight with forces in Srigufwara area, reached there.
Witnesses said a huge number of youth descended on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway at HMT Zainakote crossing and pelted stones at the police and paramilitary forces which retaliated by firing tear gas shells.
Pertinently, former minister and senior PDP leader Abdul Rahman Veeri today expressed shock and dismay over civilian causality in Nowshera Khiram.
Veeri in a statement said it is painful to see situations like this in which innocents become victims and families suffer.
Mobile Internet services snapped
Srinagar, Jun 22: Mobile Internet services were today snapped in three districts of Kashmir Valley, including the summer capital, “as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order”.
The services have been barred in Srinagar, Anantnag and Pulwama districts of the Valley, a police official said.
“The decision to suspend the services has been taken as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order,” he said.
