Militant killed in Kashmir’s Budgam

An unidentified militant was killed in a pre-dawn gunfight with security forces in Chadoora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Sunday.

“On a credible input, a cordon-and-search-operation was launched jointly by police and security forces at Bugam, Chadoora. During the search operation, the hiding militants fired on the search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” a police spokesman said

In the ensuing encounter, he said, one militant was killed. “The identity and affiliation of the slain militant is being ascertained. Moreover, search continues at the site of encounter,” he added

Sources said one to two more militants are believed to have escaped from the encounter site. “There was input that two to three militants are hiding in the area. While one was neutralised, the rest are believed to have escaped from the spot,” they said.

Since the beginning of this year, security forces have killed nearly 125 militants, including top commanders of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind outfits in “well-coordinated operations” in Kashmir. Last year 272 militants were killed by security forces in the state while the number was 217 in 2017.

“Due to human intelligence supported by technical intelligence, security agencies are getting pin-point locations of the militants which makes the operations successful. In the coming months, the anti-militancy operations will step up further,” a senior police officer told DH.

Another feature of anti-militancy operations this year has been the least civilian causalities during the encounters. “The strategy to conduct pre-dawn anti-militancy operations has worked well. And with the help of increased human intelligence it was decided to launch pre-dawn operations due to which civilians, who earlier used to disrupt the operations, get least time to react,” security experts say.

Last week Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was on a two-day visit to the state, directed the security forces to show zero tolerance towards terrorism and continue strict action against terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir.