Top Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda

A top commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen outfit was killed in an encounter with security forces in the hilly Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

Sources said that the encounter began in Gondana belt of Doda in the early hours of Wednesday, following information about the presence of militants there. “As the searches were going on in the area, the hiding militants fired upon the security forces and in the retaliatory fire one ultras was killed,” they said and added that one of the ultras escaped during the encounter.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Doda-Kishtwar-Ramban Range, Sujit Kumar, identified the slain militant as Haroon Abbas Wani, affiliated with Hizbul outfit. Wani, according to police was an A++ category militant and belonged to the Gattah belt of the district.

The DIG confirmed that one militant fled towards higher snow-bound areas and operation is on to track him. Kumar said an AK-47 rifle, three magazines, 73 rounds, a Chinese grenade, and a radio set have been recovered.

The latest encounter came three days after three militants were killed in a similar encounter with the security forces in the Tral area of south Kashmir. Earlier on January 7, another militant was killed in the same district.

Since August 5 when the Center abrogated J&K’s special status under Article 370 to date, only 12 encounters have been reported across J&K in which 24 militants have been killed.