Snatched weapons recovered
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 17: In a major success, Army, CRPF and police today gunned down two Hizbul Mujahideen militants who had killed an SPO and injured another and snatched their weapons from village Tandar in Dachhan area of Kishtwar district on April 13. Security forces have recovered snatch weapons from the possession of slain militants.
Both were fresh recruits of Hizbul Mujahideen and had been motivated into militancy by longest surviving Hizb commander of Kishtwar Jehangir Saroori.
Slain militants have been identified as Basharat Hussain son of Ghulam Qadir Gainoo and Ashiq Hussain son of Bashir Ahmed, both residents of Tander, Dachhan. Ashiq was involved in kidnapping and rape case in FIR No. 6/2018 under Sections 363 and 376 RPC of Dachhan police station and had been released from the District Jail Kishtwar 20 days back, before he committed the killing, on parole as a part of Government measures to decongest jails in view of spread of Coronavirus pandemic.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu Zone Mukesh Singh told the Excelsior that since April 13 when a SPO Pashid Iqbal was martyred and another SPO Vishal Singh was injured in the militant attack on April 13 at Tandar, Dachhan, joint teams of Army, CRPF and Kishtwar police were hunting the militants and success was achieved today.
“Both the militants were trapped in Dachhan in their hideout and asked to surrender but they opened firing leading to an encounter. Both of them were killed in the brief gunbattle,” Singh said, adding security forces didn’t suffer any casualties in the well-planned operation.
He said two weapons snatched by the militants from the SPOs including one AK-74 and an Insas rifle have been recovered from the possession of slain militants.
Police said both the militants were killed within five days of the terror act in which they had attacked the SPOs on duty with axes killing one of them on spot and injuring another critically. Injured SPO was airlifted to the Government Medical College Hospital where he is now responding to the treatment.
Describing killing of two Hizbul Mujahideen militants within five days of the terror act as major success, police said it has dealt a crippling blow to Hizbul Mujahideen which was trying to intensify militant activities in Kishtwar district.
The militants had reportedly joined Hizbul Mujahideen at the behest of Hizb commander Jehangir Saroori who is most wanted and longest surviving militant in Kishtwar district and was instrumental in luring several local youth into militancy.
“With this timely and sustained effort of eliminating two militants, an attempt by the Hizbul Mujahideen to revive terror activities in Dachhan and Marwah areas of Kishtwar has been thwarted successfully. This action of security forces is a tribute to the police martyr Pashid Iqbal,” a police handout said.
Number of militancy incidents have been reported in Kishtwar district since November 1, 2018 when prominent BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar were martyred by the militants, which was followed by the martyrdom of top RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO Rajinder Singh and couple of incidents of snatching of weapons from the Personal Security Officers (PSOs) of the then District Magistrate Kishtwar and a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader.
However, three militants of Kishtwar were killed at Batote in Ramban district while number of others have been arrested.
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