Security forces shot dead three militants of pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit during a prolonged gun-battle in Pahalgam pocket of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Monday.
The three militants were recently spotted in a video circulated by the militants through social media. While there was no damage to the security forces during the encounter, hundreds of people attempted to break the cordon in the area to help the encircled militants escape.
Massive clashes erupted between the police and protesters in several pockets of Bijbehara area, the hometown of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti when the slain local militants were buried in their respective graveyards.
Defence sources said that the troops of Rashtriya Rifles and anti-insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police cordoned off Awoora village in Pahalgam pocket of south Kashmir, around 90 kilometers from here, late on Sunday evening following an input that a group of militants was hiding in a residential house. The village is situated in the periphery of a wildlife sanctuary.
While the cordon was being laid, an exchange of fire occurred between the security forces and the holed up militants. However, the security forces halted the operation during the night hours as temperature plummeted to sub zero levels with intermittent snowfall.
On Monday morning, the security forces launched the final assault on the hideout and pounded mortar shells to destroy it. During the assault all the three militants were shot dead.
Three AK series rifles have been recovered from the possession of slain militants who were identified as Abid Sheikh, a resident of Satkipora, Maqsood Ahmad Shah alias Masoom, a resident of Bewoora and Adil Ahmad Reshi, a resident of Reshi Mohalla in Bijbehara pocket of south Kashmir. Bijbehara is the hometown of Chief Minister Mufti and has emerged as a stronghold of separatist militants and their sympathisers. last year Hizbul Mujahideen executed a fierce assault on a Border Security Force convoy in the town.
Sources said that hundreds of villagers held protest demonstrations in the villages when the bodies were handed over to them for funeral. Unlike the foreign militants killed in encounters, the bodies of local militants are handed over to their relatives for last rites.
The authorities however secretly bury the foreign militants in a graveyard in north Kashmir’s Uri area. This was the second encounter in the area in a month’s time. last month, on December 14, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant Basit Rasool Dar alias Samir was killed in a gunfight in Chek Bevoora village of Bijbehara town. Samir, an engineering student had joined the militant ranks two months ago during the unrest triggered by the killing of Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016.
During the clashes police resorted to tear gas shelling to chase disperse the crowds. A photojournalist working with English weekly Kashmir life was injured when he was hit by a teargas shell.
The Kashmir Press Photographers Association (KPPA) said the photojournalist Bilal Bahadur was deliberately targeted by the police. “The photographer was injured after policemen directly fired tear gas shell towards him while he was covering funeral procession of slain militants in Bijbehara. The KPPA demands that police should take action against the cops who fired the tear gas shell directly towards Bahadur,” a statement of the KPPA said.