USA made M4 carbine recovered
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Mar 14: A Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant was killed in an ongoing encounter in Shopian while over two dozen protesters were injured, majority with pellet injuries in the ding dong battles between stone pelters and security forces.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar, said that one militant identified as Jahangir Ahmad Wani son of Abdul Rehman Wani, resident of Rakh Narapora Shopian, affiliated with JeM was killed.
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He said that militant was killed this morning when the repeated calls made by security forces asking the militants to surrender failed. He said that that they instead of responding to surrender call opened fire on the security forces leading to a gun battle in which one militant was killed.
An official said that they had information about presence of JeM commander Wilayat Lone alias Sajad Afghani and a foreign militant Abdullah. Afghani, resident of Rawalpora area of Shopian is top commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad. He has been active since 2018.
The official said that both of them have fled from the cordon but security forces are not taking any chances.
Earlier, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by police, 34RR of Army and 14 Bn of CRPF in the area last evening based on specific input generated by Shopian police regarding presence of militants in village Rawalpora area of Shopian.
During the search operation, as the presence of militants got ascertained they were given opportunity to surrender. However, they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
Due to darkness, the operation was suspended. However, the cordon remained intact throughout night. Today in the morning, the operation was resumed during which one militant was killed.
Three houses were damaged in fire. Youth of the area gathered at the encounter site and tried to disrupt the operation leading to ding dong battles between stone pelters and the security forces. An official said that over two dozen protesters were injured in the security forces retaliation.
A 22-year-old youth Arif Ahmed Wagay son of Nazir Ahmed Wagay of Rakhnara Shopain who suffered injury in his left eye due to pellets was shifted to SMHS hospital in Srinagar for treatment. He was admitted in the hospital and is undergoing treatment.
Police said that while as a group of miscreants tried to disrupt the operation and created law and order problem near the encounter site during which some miscreants were also injured.
However, to track the other hiding militants, cordon and search operation in the area is still going on.
Police said that as per police records, the killed militant was active since September last year and was involved in several militancy cases including attacks on security forces and civilians.
He said that arms and ammunition including USA made M4 carbine rifle and other incriminating materials were recovered from the site of encounter so far. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other militant crimes”, police said.
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