Heavy stone-pelting by protesters helped three top-ranking terrorists of the lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) outfit escape a security cordon in Hajin area of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district early on Sunday, even as a policeman was killed in the heavy exchange of fire.
Sources said police and security forces cordoned off Mir Mohalla pocket of Hajin Village following a specific input about the presence of terrorists. As the cordon was being laid, hundreds of residents of the area began protests and resorted to stone-pelting to help the besieged terrorists escape. The terrorists also opened fire on the security forces. During the shootout, police Constable Zaheer Abbas received grievous injuries and later succumbed to them.
Amid the stone-pelting and exchange of fire between the security forces and the leT men, it was believed that the terrorists were killed, but it later turned out that they had escaped from the encounter site taking advantage of the shield provided by the stone-throwers.
“As the firing stopped, we thought they (terrorists) have been neutralised,” a senior police officer said. He said the massive clashes in the area helped leT men manage their escape.
The slain cop, belonging to the counter-insurgency wing of the police, was a resident of Poonch district in Jammu province. Another policeman was critically wounded in the gunfight.
Police paid homage to the slain Constable at district police lines in Srinagar. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh led civil and officers of Government forces in laying the floral wreaths on the body of the slain cop.
The Hajin belt of Bandipora, once known for rise of counter-insurgency militia Ikhwanul Muslimoon, has emerged as a new hotbed of terrorists. The Ikhwan was responsible for wiping out extremism in the mid-1990s as a sizeable militants surrendered before the Army to join the group.
Kuka Parray, known as king of counter-insurgency belonged to the village who along-with his gang-leaders demolished rank and file of terror groups and their overgound sympathisers. He was later killed by militants in 2003.
However, in a new twist to the situation, the area has become a safe haven for leT extremists who receive considerable support from the local population. Even as the security forces launched several successful operations against the terrorists during the last three months, the militants also succeeded in carrying out attacks on the security forces.