2 Militants Killed In Kulgam Encounter
by Observer News Service
Srinagar: Two unidentified militants on Monday were killed by government forces in an encounter in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
In the early hours today, Special Operations Group (SOG) of police, army’s 34 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), and the personnel of 18th Battalion CRPF laid a siege around Khur Hanjipora area of the district and launched a search operation, reports said. When the joint team started advances, the militants hiding in a residential house opened a volley of gunfire upon them in a bid to break the cordon.
The state forces returned the fire setting off a gun-fight. In the ensuing encounter, two unknown militants were killed, a police spokesperson said. He said identification and affiliation of the slain militants killed in a ‘clean operation without any collateral damages, were being ascertained”
“Incriminating material including arms & ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter. All these materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other crimes,” the spokesperson added.
He said that a case FIR No. 25/2020 under relevant sections of law stands registered in Police Station Manzgam and investigation has been initiated.
The spokesperson also urged people to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any.
Meanwhile, media reports have identified the two slain militants as Adil Ahmad Wani alias Abu Ibrahim and Shaheen Bashir Thoker, both residents of neighboring Shopian district.
Hindustan Times reported that Thoker joined militant ranks, on August 15 last year, days after Kashmir’s special status was revoked by Modi-led government at the Centre. Wani had taken up arms three years earlier in 2017. He was earlier associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba.