A day after militants shot dead a junior police officer in north Kashmir’s Sopore area, police on Wednesday recovered body of a Hizbul Mujahideen militant in south Kashmir’s Awantipora pocket.
The slain militant had been knocked down while fleeing from a cordoned area. Police said that cordon and search operation was launched in Beighpora village in South Kashmir’s Awantipora district late on Tuesday evening. The security forces had received reports on movement of armed militants in the area.
Police said that a militant fired upon the search party and in retaliation, one Hizbul Mujahideen militant identified as Waseem Ahmad Dar was killed. Sources said that Dar was a student of Class XII in a local school in 2012 when he went missing.
His father Muhammad Yousuf Dar said that they came to know about his joining Hizbul ranks when the police and security forces raided their house in his pursuit. One AK-56 rifle, four AK magazines, one pouch, one Chinese grenade and 60 AK rounds were recovered from Dar’s possession.
The area observed a shutdown after the news spread about Dar’s death. Sources said that hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, through phone calls, addressed people after they offered funeral prayers of the slain militant. Dar was shot dead hours after Hizbul militants killed an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police’s counter-insurgency wing in an ambush in Chanakhan pocket of north Kashmir's militancy prone Sopore area.