Srinagar : Three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants were killed and an Army officer was wounded in an overnight operation in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, police said.
This was the fifth gunfight of this year and a total of 11 militants have been killed.
The latest gunfight erupted at Zowla Chadoora Thursday evening when Police and Army launched a cordon and search operation in the area following an input regarding the presence of three Jaish militants.
The Central Reserve Police Force joined the operation after the encounter broke, police said.
“ During the search operation, as the presence of terrorists got ascertained they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter. However in order to evacuate the civilians trapped around the encounter site, the joint team ensured the evacuation of all civilians to the safer places. Besides, to avoid any collateral damage due to darkness, the operation was suspended during night hours and in the wee hours the operation resumed, resulting in the elimination of three terrorists linked with proscribed terror outfit JeM. During the encounter one Army Officer received minor splinter injury,” a police spokesman said.
One of the slain militant has been identified as Waseem Mir, a resident of Nowgam Srinagar who was active since December 2020.
“As per reliable sources and documents recovered, the other two killed terrorists appear to be foreign terrorists, however further identification is being ascertained,” he said
“As per police records, the killed terrorist Waseem was a categorized terrorist and part of group involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities. Several terror crime cases were registered against him. Terrorist Waseem was involved in killing of Inspector Parvaiz Ahmad on June 22, 2021. He was also involved in grenade attack on CRPF Bunker near Aali Masjid Chowk at Eidgah Srinagar in which one civilian and a police personnel were injured. Besides other terror crimes, he was also involved in brainwashing and motivating the youth of Central Kashmir to join terror folds,” he said.
Three AK-56 rifles were recovered from the site of the encounter.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said after the killing of Waseem, there is only one resident militant Moomin in Srinagar who got active recently.
He said they have neutralized all the resident listed militants of Srinagar.
This year 11 militants including top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish have been killed in five gunfights in Kashmir. In the last nine days, Jaish has lost 15 militants including top commanders in various operations.