Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 28: Two militants were killed while an officer was among 5 security men injured in a gun battle in Kulgam district today.
The gun battle erupted in the wee hours at Adigam Devsar Kulgam when security forces were carrying out a cordon and a search operation following an input about militants presence in the area.
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Addressing a joint press conference along with the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South Kashmir range, Javaid Iqbal Matoo, Commander 2 Sector RR, Brigadier Anirudh Chauhan, said that acting on a specific information early this morning, security forces laid a siege around the suspected spot at Arigam area of Kulgam.
“We have been following the movements of this group since the past one month. At 6:30 am, the terrorists tried to break the cordon but they were pushed back to enter the house,” the Army officer said.
“To ensure the safety of the civilians, this operation took 12 hours. Two terrorists were killed in the encounter after a fierce exchange of fire. One of the slain terrorists has been identified as Umais Ahmed Wani of Kulgam, who was the commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba. His killing is obviously a big jolt for the Lashkar outfit,” Brigadier Chauhan said.
He said the operation reflected synergy among the security agencies and efforts to keep the peaceful atmosphere intact. Click here to watch video
DIG Matoo said a gunfight erupted in the area after security forces launched a search operation in Kulgam and the hiding militants fired at the security forces.
Matoo said the identification will be done after the DNA testing, but the police had inputs about the presence of two TRF militants, Umais Ahmad Wani who had joined the militant ranks in 2020 and Aqib Gojri, who was active since 2022.
“Both of them were wanted in several cases,” he said, adding that they were motivating the youth and the killing is a big success for the security forces.
Four Army men and an Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) were injured in the encounter. The injured were immediately shifted to the medical facility and the condition of all injured is stated to be stable.”
The gun battle broke out a day after police in Awantipora sub district arrested six suspected militant associates and recovered Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), arms and ammunition, and other incriminating materials from their possession.
Giving details, police said they got specific input that a Pakistan based Kashmiri terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit was in the process of identification of youth who can be motivated to join terrorist ranks and after finding such youth, arms and ammunition, explosives was being delivered to them to commit terror acts before their formal joining into terror ranks .
Upon this information, a case was registered at Police Station Tral. “During investigation, the youth who were part of this module were identified. It came to fore that Pakistan based terrorists with the assistance of an OGW in jail identified many youth who were motivated by them to join terror ranks in Tral area of Awantipora and Kulgam district,” police said.
“The youth identified were provided pistols, grenades, IEDs and other explosive materials to facilitate their joining into terror ranks. Before inducting them into terror ranks, they were instructed to do some terror activity either by target killing, throwing grenades on security forces /public places , non-local labourers and by laying & detonating IEDs,” a police spokesman said.
Police said during investigations, it also came to fore that a Pakistan based terrorist handler had chosen some places for planting of IEDs with the assistance of these youth.
“The terrorist handler has also pumped in some money to carry out the tasks and to procure material for fabrication of more IEDs. So far six terrorist associates have been arrested in the case and upon possession and disclosures by these accused persons, large quantity of arms /ammunition and explosives including five IEDs with remotes, 30 detonators, 17 batteries for IEDs, two pistols, three magazines, 25 live rounds of pistol, four hand grenades and cash amount of Rs 20000 have been recovered,” police said, adding that investigation of case is underway & more arrests and recoveries are likely in the case.
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