Militant involved in killing of Kashmiri Pandit neutralised in Pulwama

An army soldier and the militant, who police said was involved in the recent killing of a Kashmiri Pandit, were killed in an encounter between security forces and ultras in Awantipora area of south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday.

Police said the gunfight erupted during the wee hours of Tuesday after police and army launched a cordon-and-search-operation in Padgampora village of Awantipora on a ‘specific input’ about the presence of militants in the area.

As the search party approached the suspected spot, militants hiding inside a masjid opened indiscriminate fire resulting in injuries to two army personnel. “The injured soldiers were immediately shifted to army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar, where one of them succumbed to his injuries," a police spokesperson said.

Read | Another targeted killing, another Pandit shot dead in Kashmir

In the retaliatory action of security forces, one militant was killed on the spot, he said. Resuming the search for the second militant, who had holed up inside a bathroom of an adjacent building, again caution was exercised and 14 civilians were rescued from the place before he was neutralised.

The slain militants were identified as Aqib Mushtaq Bhat (Category-A) militant, who was earlier associated with Hizbul Mujahideen and for the past few months working with The Resistance Front and Aijaz Ahmad Bhat (Category-C) ultra associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit and also working in coordination with TRF.

Aqib was active since January 2021 and Aijaz since May 2022, police said and added investigation so far revealed that the slain militants had come together to conspire and attack minorities, non-locals, other vulnerable targets and security forces.

“They were involved in the recent killing of Kashmir Pandit Sanjay Kumar at Achan, Pulwama and many other terror cases,” police added.

In the first two months of 2023, there has been a steady decline in encounters between militants and security forces compared to the same period during the previous few years. Police say there has been a decline in recruitment of locals into militancy and the number of active ultras was coming down significantly.

Recently the ADGP Kashmir said that only 37 militants were active in Kashmir. Last year, 186 militants, including 56 foreigners, were killed in various operations by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir while 189 militants were killed in 2021.

Last year 100 local youth got recruited into militant ranks which was 37 per cent less compared to 2021. Out of 100 locals who got recruited, 65 were neutralised, 17 arrested and 18 were active on December 31, 2022.

In 2017, 126 locals had joined militant ranks while the number was 218 in 2018, 126 in 2019, 167 in 2020 and 128 in 2021.