J&K erupts: 12 terrorists, 3 jawans, 4 civilians slain

Srinagar: At least 12 terrorists, three Army jawans and a civilian were killed in three separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian and Anantnag districts on Sunday. Three more civilians were killed and scores of others were injured in security forces’ actions in the subsequent clashes. An unidentified body was also found late Sunday night at the encounter site at Kachdoora in Shopian district. That takes the overall toll to 20.

J&K director-general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said the killing of 12 Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists was one of the biggest successful counter-offensives against terror groups in the Kashmir Valley in recent times. Mr Vaid told this newspaper that three Army jawans lost their lives and four others were injured fighting a group of terrorists holed up in a cluster of private houses at Kachdoora in Shopian.

He said that at nearby Dragad, the owner of the house in which seven militants had been trapped too was killed. He was identified as Mushtaq Ahmed Padroo.

“All seven militants were killed in the Dragad encounter. There has been heavy stone-pelting near the encounter sites. There was no option but to use force,” the state police chief said, adding one civilian was killed and six others were injured, three of them seriously, in security forces’ firing.

While a protester, Zubair Ahmed Bhat, was killed on the spot in the security forces’ firing, two critically-injured civilians Iqbal Manzoor Bhat and Mehrajuddin Bhat succumbed in hospitals, the police and hospital sources said.

Mr Vaid also said: “Pellet shotguns too have been used, resulting into injuries to about 25 people, but all of them are stable. A number of J&K police and CRPF personnel too were injured in stone-pelting.” Other reports put the number of the injured in clashes at between 90 and 100.

Reporters covering the clash at Kachdoora said two houses had caught fire in the fighting and with that the exchanges intensified. Later, the corpses of three militants were found lying under the debris. The officials said the operation was called off at twilight but the search of the debris will resume on Monday morning.

“We had inputs about the presence of four to five militants in the area. We will search the debris again tomorrow and see if any more bodies are lying there,” said an Army official.

Youth throw stones at security personnel during clashes in Srinagar on Sunday following the killing of 12 militants and four civilians in statewide encounters. (Photo: PTI)

The militants killed at Dragad have been identified as Adil Ahmed Thoker, Nazim Dar, Ubaid Shafi Malla, Yawar Itoo, Rayees Ahmed Thoker, Zubair Turay and Ashfaq  Malik of Pinjura — all residents of Shopian district.

Lt. Gen. A.K. Bhatt, commander of the Army’s Srinagar-based 15 (Chinar) Corps, said at a hurriedly-called press conference at the headquarters of the counter-insurgency “Victor Force” at Awantipora, 33 km south of here, that two of the slain terrorists, Ishfaq Malik and Rayees Thokar, were behind the murder of Lieutenant Umar Fayyaz Parray. The young Muslim Kashmiri Army officer of 2 Rajputana Rifles was kidnapped and subsequently brutally killed by militants in Shopian in March 2017. The gory incident had evoked nationwide outrage and a pledge from the Central government that “terrorism will be eradicated from the Valley at any cost”. 22-year-old Lt. Parray, posted in the Akhnoor border area of Jammu region, was on leave to be part of the marriage celebrations of his cousin in Batpora village of neighbouring Kulgam district when he was kidnapped by masked gunmen.

The killing of militants and civilians set off protests and clashes at places in the twin districts of southern Kashmir, neighbouring Pulwama and Kulgam districts, the summer capital Srinagar and some other parts of the Valley. At places, the security forces fired teargas canisters to quell protesters and stone-pelting mobs at places, witnesses said.

DGP Vaid said: “We caught one militant alive and one was killed in Anantnag encounter.” Elaborating, he said: “I would like to make a special mention about the Peth Dialgam encounter, where our SSP Altaf Khan made a special effort, which is unheard of in any part of the world. He called the family members of one of the militants. They spoke with him for 30 minutes to convince him to surrender. Khan himself tried to persuade the militant that he was not fighting jihad.”

He added: “But he (militant) did not heed the advice of his family or the police officer and instead he fired on the security forces. Ultimately, they (security forces) were left with no option but to shoot him down.”

A statement by the police here added that the searches at Peth Dialgam started and the location of militants was zeroed in, the security forces “made repeated requests on the loudspeaker asking them (militants) to surrender, as per the SOP (standard operating procedure)”. It added: “On this, one of the terrorists (name withheld) came out of the house and surrendered before the forces. He has been taken into custody. It is pertinent to mention that the family of the militant who surrendered at the encounter site also helped the police in motivating him to come out of the house and surrender.”

Life came to a standstill in most parts of the Valley after an alliance of key separatist leaders issued a shutdown call for two days from Sunday. The authorities have suspended train services in the Valley and asked mobile phone service providers to snap Internet services on these days “as a precautionary measure”.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed grief over the death of the civilians. She has also sympathised with those injured in these operations, an official release said. It said the CM, who is in New Delhi, also paid tribute to the three Army jawans killed during these operations. She has conveyed her sympathies with the bereaved families and has prayed for peace, the release added.

One more body found, toll is 20
The police late Sunday night said that four persons killed in the fire fight at Kachdoora in Shopian were militants whereas the identity of the fifth person whose body was found at the site is being ascertained.

It said in a statement here, " The total number of militants killed in Kachdoora encounter have found to be four whereas about the fifth one person the police os ascertaining facts (sic)."