Hours after police shot dead two local terrorists of the banned militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in an encounter at Padgampora village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, suspected terrorists on Sunday night attacked ancestral home of State MoS for Haj Farooq Ahmad Andrabi in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, leaving one policeman injured.
A self-loading rifle, which was snatched by the terrorists a few months ago from a policeman at a picket, was recovered from the possession of the slain terrorists in Padgampora village.
Earlier on Saturday night, in the first incident of weapon-snatching in Jammu, two youths from Kashmir valley managed to run away with AK-47 of a policeman. Following this, a high alert was sounded in and around Jammu ahead of the PM’s visit on April 2 to inaugurate the country’s longest road tunnel between Chenani and Nashri.
Meanwhile, in south Kashmir, soon after the encounter of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists took place, shops were closed in Awantipora and Pulwama as police and paramilitaries were deployed in strength to prevent a flare-up in the area.
Inspector-General of Police (Kashmir Range) Javed Gillani told reporters that a police party was on the way from Pulwama to Awantipora when a group of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in a Maruti car fired at them near Padgampora. The police returned the fire and two militants were killed in the gun battle. Sources said a third terrorist involved in the attack managed to escape.
The two slain terrorists have been identified as Shahbaz Shafi Wani alias Rayees Kachroo, a resident of Beloo Rajpora Pulwama and Farooq Ahmad Hurrah, resident of Naizneenpora Shopian.
A top Army officer said that around 107 terrorists are active in south Kashmir region including the fresh recruits who took up arms after the killing of Burhan Wani and subsequent uprising in Kashmir in 2016.
One AK rifle, one SlR, one AK magazine, two SlR Magazines, two pouches and a grenade were recovered from the spot.
Police said the recovered SlR was the same which was looted on October 8, 2016 from Tumhal minority picket in Pulwama.
While weapon snatching by militant cadre and unruly mobs in Kashmir Valley is a fad and last year Kashmir Valley witnessed 16 incidents of weapon snatching and looting between January 1 and December 31, 2016, it is for the first time, that youths hailing from the South Kashmir district of Shopian, snatched a weapon.
Police officers investigating the case claimed that the youths who snatched a AK-47 rifle from a Constable near Tawi bridge in Jammu, had a history of participating in stone-pelting.
“We are verifying the records to ascertain whether they had any association with any militant outfit or over ground workers” a senior police officer told The Pioneer.