Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 7: Three Jash-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants including two foreigners were killed and an Army officer was injured in an overnight encounter in Budgam district today.
Based on a specific input generated by police regarding presence of militants in Zolwa Chadoora area of Budgam, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by police and Army’s 50RR last evening in the area.
“During the search operation, as the presence of militants was ascertained they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated, leading to an encounter.
The security forces evacuated the civilians trapped around the encounter site. “To avoid any collateral damage due to darkness, the operation was suspended during night hours”, an official said
However, in the wee hours, the operation resumed, resulting in the killing of three militants of JeM. An Army officer received minor splinter injury.
One of the killed militants has been identified as Waseem Mir son of Ghulam Qadir Mir, resident of Nowgam Srinagar, who was active since December 2020.
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The official said that documents recovered revealed that the other two killed militants appeared to be foreigners.
As per police records, he said, Waseem was a categorized militant and part of group involved in several cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities. Several cases were registered against him.
“Waseem was involved in killing of Inspector Parvaiz Ahmad on 22nd June 2021. He was also involved in grenade attack on CRPF Bunker near Aali Masjid Chowk at Eidgah Srinagar in which 1 civilian and 1 police personnel were injured.” Besides, he said, Waseem was also involved in brainwashing and motivating the youth of Central Kashmir to join militant folds.
“Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including 3 AK-56 rifles were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation”, police said.
He added that police have registered a case under relevant Sections of law and investigation has been initiated. “People are requested to cooperate with police till the area at encounter site is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any.”
Meanwhile, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar appreciated role of joint team for conducting successful operation without any collateral damage.
The IGP while sharing the details regarding encounter said that with the killing of Waseem, only one militant hailing from Srinagar is left out now “who will be either arrested or neutralised at the earliest.”
He said so far 11 militants including 6 foreign militants were killed in different encounters this year.
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