JOIN USTwo local Al-Badr militants killed in Kashmir’s Kulgam
Two local militants affiliated with Al-Badr outfit were killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Monday.
The police said the encounter broke out Sunday night after security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation (CASO) in Hasanpora-Tabela village in Kulgam, 60 kms from here, following specific inputs about the presence of a militant in the area.
The trapped militants were given ample opportunities to surrender. However, they denied and instead fired upon the search party which retaliated, leading to an encounter in which two ultras were killed, a police official said. The gunfight concluded at 2:05 am and two pistols were recovered from the encounter site.
The slain militants were identified as Imad Muzffar Wani and Abdul Rashid Thokar, both aged below 21 years. Both the slain militants had reportedly joined militant ranks in December last year.
Inspector General of police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar in a tweet said Imad was a “categorised” militant of Al-Badr. “He was involved in an attack on police personnel Mushtaq Waggay in Pulwama on December 19, 2021, in which he got seriously injured,” he said.
The 2022 has started with encounters in Kashmir as the first 10 days of the new year 2022 have recorded seven gunfights resulting in the killing of 13 militants, including top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander.
Out of seven gun-battles, Srinagar district witnessed two encounters in a span of just one hour while Kulgam saw two encounters. North Kashmir’s Kupwara district, south Kashmir’s Pulwama district and central Budgam district saw one encounter each.
Pertinently, 171 militants were killed in Kashmir in 2021 and according to police figures, 156 ultras, including 73 foreigners, were active in Kashmir as on December 31. This is for the first time that the number of active militants in the Valley has come down to less than 200 since the insurgency erupted in Kashmir in 1990.
In 2021, out of 128 locals who joined militancy, 79 were killed and 17 arrested.
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