Security forces shot dead two Hizbul Mujahideen militants during a brief gunfight in Tahab village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday. The encounter triggered protests in the area even as the authorities snapped mobile internet in the southern district to prevent news inflow. Eyewitnesses said that around a dozen protesters were injured in security forces’ action to prevent swell of people at the encounter site.
The gunfight erupted on Sunday morning after security forces cordoned off Tahab village, around 40 kilometers from here. The militants tried to escape the cordoned area and fired at the security forces, triggering a brief gunfight.
“Encounter started at Tahab Pulwama. Two militants down,” Director General of Police, J&K, Dr S P Vaid wrote on his twitter handle.
The slain militants have been identified as Shariq Ahmad of Gulzarpur Awantipore and Showkat Ahmed alias Shabir of Mehand Anantnag. They had joined militant ranks this year.
Soon after the news of the killing of militants spread in the area, a large number of people tried to reach to the encounter site. During clashes between the protesters and security forces, around a dozen persons have been wounded.
The district administration suspended the internet services in entire Pulwama district to prevent spreading of rumours and mobilization of crowds towards the encounter site.
Thousands of people attended the funeral of Shariq Ahmad at his ancestral Takuna village. Hizbul Mujahideen’s local commander Riyaz Naikoo showed up in the funeral procession and addressed the gathering. He said that Kashmiris militants were fighting an indigenous war and there was no scope for global jehadi organizations.
Meanwhile, the authorities bared Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani was barred from addressing press conference as his residences was sealed off and no journalist was allowed to go inside. Geelani had sought to clear his stance on the recent arrests by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Seven separatist leaders and workers have been arrested by NIA in connection with alleged terror funding and fomenting trouble in Kashmir.
“The Indian authorities have resorted to character assassination of pro-freedom leadership and services of agencies like NIA are being employed to defame and to delegitimize the real representative character of resistance camp,” Hurriyat said in s statement.
Another separatist leader Abdullah Tari in at a press conference said that Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah, who has been arrested by Enforcement Directorate and taken to Delhi, is being subjected to physical and mental torture.
“The motive behind the arrest of pro-freedom leadership and implicating them in fabricated cases through biased and unethical Indian media is nothing but to discredit and malign their image and to sow seeds of distrust and discord behind people and the resistance leadership,” Tari said.
