A suspected foreign militant of Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit was killed in a fierce gun-battle with security forces in Tral sub-district of south Kashmir on Sunday. A civilian was also injured in the area when a tear smoke canister exploded during clashes between protesters and riot police.
Police said the gunfight erupted in Dar Ganaigund village of Tral on Sunday morning when security forces cordoned off the area following input on presence of militants. The village is native place of Noor Muhammad Trali, a dwarf militant commander whose killing last year was described as one of the greatest achievements of the security forces in recent years. Tantray, who had served more than a decade in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with transporting arms to New Delhi, had single-handedly revived Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit in Kashmir Valley.
Sources said the security forces reached the suspected spot as the hiding militants opened fire that triggered a gunfight.
Security sources said that one militant was killed in the encounter. He was identified as Adnan Bhai, a resident of Pakistan. Sources said other aides of slain militant might have fled from the foothill area situated near Lam forests where militant hideouts have been reported earlier also.
Reports of intense stone pelting and clashes between civilian protesters and the security forces poured in from the area near gunfight site and other areas while as tension gripped the Tral belt after the killing of Jaish commander.
Meanwhile, the mobile internet services continued to remain snapped in several south Kashmir areas including Shopian, Tral and Pulwama. The internet blockade is seen as an attempt to curb an online spree of militants exposing policemen and officers on social media and threatening them to tender resignations through social media.
Sources said that over a hundred Special Police Officers (SPOs) have tendered resignations through social networking sites after three police personnel were killed by militants in Shopian district on Friday.
Another resignation by a woman SPO from south Kashmir’s Kulgam district through social media networking sites has gone viral. In her video, message the woman SPO Rafiqa Akhtar, a resident of Kulgam said that she was working with police for 15 years but was resigning “out of my own will”.
The police authorities denied receipt of any formal resignations.
Meanwhile, a civilian abducted by unidentified gunmen in north Kashmir’s Sopore area of Baramulla district late Saturday evening was untraced till last reports came in.
The family members of the abducted person have expressed grave concern over his well-being. Security sources said that 45-year Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, a labourer and resident of Harwan Sopore was picked up by unknown gunmen from his house.