No collateral damage in Ops: DGP
*LeT module busted, 4 held
Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, June 23: Two militants were killed and a CRPF personnel was martyred in an encounter in Bandzoo area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district today.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar told Excelsior that two militants were killed and a CRPF personnel who was injured later succumbed.
He said that a joint team of Police, Army’s 55 RR and CRPF cordoned off village Bandzoo after specific inputs about presence of militants in the area. He added that during the search operation as the presence of militants was ascertained they were given opportunity to surrender. “However, they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter”, he said.
Kumar said that two militants were killed in the gun battle and a CRPF man was critically injured and later succumbed to his injuries.
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IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar and senior police and security forces officers paid rich tributes to CRPF man.
“Incriminating material including two AK rifles and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes”, he said.
The dead bodies of the militants have been sent to Handwara for their last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA.
Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh described the operations as very neat and clean without any collateral damage.
He said that in Srinagar encounter that took place on Sunday, security forces exercised maximum restraint. “Earlier in Srinagar, few houses were damaged. However, this time, more meticulous planning was there and we have ensured that there is no collateral damage on the ground”, he added.
“Srinagar encounter at Zoonimar was delayed by 2 hours for the sake of giving an opportunity to boys to come out and surrender. We got their family members, we got the local respectables to make an appeal to them”, Singh said.
“It was only when they did not budge and fired upon the security forces, they had to retaliate and that operation was carried out. However, the good thing was that the operation was neat and clean without any collateral damage”, the DGP said.
He said that operations are happening at a regular frequency now and the ground forces are working towards stabilizing peace in this region.
He said that the militants are trying their best to carry out a big strike. “They have always been planning to go in for some big action. On May 28, we were able in neutralizing very big vehicle-borne IED in Pulwama district-that was meant for an attack on security forces”, he added.
“We have reports that JeM is planning some big IED incident against the security forces. We are making sure we act on whatever information we get regarding the terrorist activities or movement”, he said.
He added that an operation was started in Lolab in Kupwara district after information was received about a hideout. “Another one is going on in Malangam in Bandipora. The forces in coordination launch more than a dozen operations in one day, a few of them click and we are able to achieve success in neutralizing the terrorists”, he added.
“Operation that was carried out three days ago, a foreign militant belonging to JeM was killed. He had another foreign terrorist with him. Only one terrorist was killed there, but two weapons were recovered from the spot. The second weapon was MO-4 rifle (US made)”, Singh said.
The DGP said that JeM has got a good capacity of using the MO-4 weapon. “It is their preferred weapon. To fulfil the need, the weapons were dropped in from Pakistani side with a help of a drone in Hiranagar Sector. We are defeating such bids every time”, he added.
Meanwhile, Army, CRPF and Police this evening busted a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) module in Sopore by arresting four associates of Lashkar militants from Puthka Muqam and Chanpora Athoora.
They have been identified as Irfan Ahmed Mir son of Mohammad Maqbool Mir, Irfan Ahmed Khan son of Ghulam Mohammad Khan and Qaiser Rehman Khan son of Abdul Rehman Khan, all residents of Putkha and Suhail Ahmed Ganie son of Ghulam Mohammad Ganie, a resident of Chanpora, Athoora.
They confessed having carried out grenade attack on Police Post Putkha on the directions of LeT militants Fayaz Ahmed War alias Umar and Usman.
Meanwhile, Police today said that the missing PhD scholar from Bemina area of Srinagar has joined Hibul Mujahideen outfit and if his family members would bring him back, he won’t be arrested.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar today said that as per Police reports Hilal Ahmed, a Ph.D scholar from Bemina area of Srinagar has joined Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. “If his family brings him back, we will not arrest him”, he said.
On June 13, Hilal, who is pursuing PhD from Kashmir University, went for trekking along with five other youth to Naranag area of Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. All his five friends returned home the same evening except Hilal.
There were no whereabouts of Hilal since then. His family members had been moving from pillar to post besides staging protests that their son should be brought back.
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