Four local militants affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) outfits were killed in two separate gunfights with security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian and Pulwama districts on Saturday.
The police said that the first encounter broke out during the wee hours of Saturday after security forces launched a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in Chowgam area of Shopian, 55 kms from here, following specific inputs about the presence of a militant in the area.
“Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists neutralised in the encounter that broke out between security forces and terrorists in the Chowgam area of Shopian,” Inspector General Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said. “One terrorist was involved in grenade firing and killing of civilians. Another terrorist had joined recently.”
The slain militants were identified as Sajad Ahmad Check and Raja Basit Nazir, both locals. On December 8, three militants affiliated with The Resistance Front (TRF), an affiliate of the LeT were killed in a similar encounter with security forces in Shopian.
Hours after the Shopian gunfight ended, two more militants were killed in an encounter after a joint team of J&K police, army and paramilitary forces cordoned off Hardumir village of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama.
As the joint team of forces zeroed in on the target, the militants hiding in the village fired at them, leading to a gunfight, a police official said. In the brief shootout that followed, two militants were killed.
The police identified the slain militants as Nadeem Bhat and Rasool alias Adil, who were affiliated with the AGuH, a local affiliate of Al-Qaeda. The police said that the slain militants were “involved in several terror incidents” and two AK rifles were recovered from them. Adil was an IED expert, police added.
165 militants have been killed in the Valley so far this year, of which 142 were locals and 23 Pakistanis. In 2020, the number of militants killed in the Valley stood at 195. According to official estimates over 200 militants were still active in the Valley.
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Militancy in Shopian on the decline:
From 2015 to 2019, Shopian had emerged as a hub of new-age militancy in Kashmir as over 130 local militants were killed in the district during the period. Shopian emerged on the radar of security forces immediately after the killing of the poster boy of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Burhan Wani in July 2016.
Prior to that, a Facebook photo that marked the arrival of new-age militancy in Kashmir was taken in Turkwangam village of Shopian in July 2015. Burhan posed with 12 associates, carrying assault rifles and with faces unmasked. After the killing of Burhan, Shopian remained out of bounds for security forces due to the relentless protests for nearly seven months, with militants seen moving around freely and posting their videos as well.
However, since 2020, there has been a decline in militancy in Shopian, though sporadic encounters between militants and security forces are still happening.
A senior police officer involved in counter-insurgency operations said that after relentless operations by security forces broke the backbone of militancy in Shopian, “militant handlers across the border instructed terrorists to lay low in the district.”
“There is still a movement of militants in Shopian as dense apple orchards and nearby forests in gives terrorists an advantage as they often give a slip to security forces during search operations. Most villages in the district are located at a tri-junction connecting Shopian with Pulwama, Kulgam and Anantnag,” he said.
Spread over 30,741 hectares, Shopian has a population of 2.6 lakh (according to the 2011 census) and is relatively affluent, with money earned from the over 20,000 hectares under apple cultivation. Over two lakh metric tonnes of apples are produced in the district every year.
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