Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 3: An Army jawan was killed in an encounter with the militants, who comprised at least one of the accused wanted in Delhi High Court blast of September 7, 2011, at village Terana in Palmar area of Kishtwar district.
The militants escaped after the killing.
Official reports said the militants ambushed a joint team of 17 Rashtriya Rifles and police at village Terana last night. In the encounter that followed, a Territorial Army jawan, Noor Hussain of 159 TA, attached to 17 Rashtriya Rifles, was killed.
Noor Hussain hailed from village Rakna in Palmar area.
Reports said the joint team of 17 RR and Army was on a routine search operation at village Terana when it was ambushed by at least two militants. Army and police personnel retaliated but the militants managed to escape.
Body of deceased TA jawan Noor Hussain was shifted to an Army camp and was handed over to his family members at village Rakna this morning after post-mortem.
Army sources said Noor Hussain was a very brave soldier. He was instrumental in killing two top terrorists at Chatru in October 2007 for which he had been awarded Sena Medal on August 15, 2008.
Army has lost second jawan in less than a week in Kishtwar while searching the most wanted militants. Another brave soldier, Rajesh Kumar of 1 Para and a Shaurya Chakra awardee, a para commando, had died when he fell down from a mountain while searching the militants.
Army and police have launched a massive search operation in entire Palmar area to nab the militants involved in the operation as one of them was reported to be part of three top terrorists wanted to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) in connection with the blast outside Delhi High Court on September 7 last year that had killed 14 persons and injured over 80 others.
The militants reportedly involved in the operation included Shakir Hussain alias Chotta Hafiz and Rezwan.
Chotta Hafiz, Aamir Kamal alias Kamran and Junaid Akram Malik were the three militants, who were wanted to the NIA in connection with Delhi High Court blast. The NIA has already announced Rs 10 lakh reward on each of the militants.
Rezwan, though not wanted to the NIA, was also a dreaded militant operating in Kishtwar along with Mohammad Shaffi.
There had been unconfirmed reports that Junaid Akram Malik might have been killed by Chotta Hafiz and Rezwan as they feared that Junaid might surrender before security forces or police.
However, there has been no official confirmation that whether Junaid was killed or alive even as Kishtwar police, security forces, Intelligence agencies and local people, mostly the sources, continued to search the wanted militants to help NIA work out Delhi High Court blast completely.
Only three militants from Kishtwar have so far been arrested by the NIA in connection with the blast. One of them has agreed to become approver before the court.
Two Pakistani nationals, who had reportedly transported the explosive material from Kishtwar to New Delhi and planted it outside the High Court, were also untraced.
“It has been more than three months since Junaid Akram Malik’s uncle, a former Hizbul militant, left in search of Junaid in higher reaches of Kishtwar,” sources said.
However, it has been more than three weeks that the communication with the kin has fallen silent as well and there was no mention about Junaid in the intercepts, they added
The State Police, which gave an initial breakthrough in the September 2011 Delhi High Court blast case by arresting the accused who had sent the e-mail to media houses, had pressed its specially trained dogs also in the search operation, sources said.
An uncle of Junaid, whose medico brother Wasim Akram Malik was arrested from Bangladesh after a probe by the State Police, was engaged in pursuing the accused to surrender.
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