A self-styled commander of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit was killed along with his associate in an overnight gunfight with security forces in Chawalgam area of south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Friday.
The police identified the slain militants as Hizbul district commander Shiraz Molvi and Yawar Bhat. “Shiraz, who was active since 2016, was involved in recruiting youth into (militants) ranks,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said.
Terming Shiraz’s killing a ‘major success’ for security forces, he said the slain militant was involved in several killings in the area.
The operation was launched by Army’s Rashtriya Rifles, J&K Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) after ‘specific information’ was received about the presence of atleast two militants in Chawalgam area of Kulgam on Thursday.
A police official said that soon after the area was cordoned off, announcements were made, appealing to hiding militants to surrender. “However, the hiding militants refused to surrender and opened fire on the search party. In retaliatory fire, one militant was killed on Thursday evening while the second was neutralised early Friday morning,” he said.
While 19 militants were killed across Kashmir in October, in the first 10 days of November no encounter was reported between security forces and ultras. The Chawalgam encounter was the first in November in which two militants were killed and another militant was killed on the same day in Srinagar.
October had turned out to be the most violent month after August 5, 2019 in J&K as 13 civilians, including three members of minority community and five non-locals, 12 security forces personnel besides 19 militants were killed in various militancy-related incidents across the Union Territory (UT) during the month.
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