Four terrorists were gunned down by J&K Police in two separate encounters in the capital Srinagar and south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The two encounters took place in a span of 12 hours and the slain terrorists include the killers of a TV actor and social media influencer who was gunned down outside her home earlier this week.
A senior J&K Police official said that all the four slain terrorists belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit. Incriminating material including arms and ammunition have been recovered from them.
“Police along with security forces have neutralized 04 terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT in twin anti-terrorist operations including killers of artiste Amreen Bhat in Srinagar and Awantipora. Besides, 01 hybrid terrorist has been arrested along with arms/ammunition in Bemina area of Srinagar,” a police statement said.
“At about 2133hrs, on a specific input generated by Awantipora Police regarding presence of terrorists in village Aghanzipora area of Awantipora, a joint cordon & search operation was launched by Police, Army (55RR) and CRPF (130Bn) in the said area. During the operation, as the joint search party was laying cordon around a cluster of houses, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” it said.
“In the ensuing encounter, two local terrorists identified as Shahid Mushtaq Bhat resident of Hafroo Chadoora, Budgam and Farhan Habib resident of Hakripora, Pulwama linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter,” the statement said.
“Besides, Srinagar Police developed an input about movement of terrorists from South Kashmir to Srinagar city and tracked their presence in Soura area of Srinagar, a special & small team of Srinagar Police launched a cordon and search operation in the said area. During the search, as the presence of terrorists was ascertained and search party proceeded towards suspected spot the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” the statement said.
“In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter. They have been identified as Shakir Ahmad Waza and Afreen Aftab Malik both residents of Trenz Shopian,” it said.
“As per police records both the killed terrorist were categorized terrorists and were part of groups involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on Police and security forces,” the statement said.
“Incriminating materials, huge cache of arms & ammunition was recovered from both the sites of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation,” it said.
“IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar congratulated the joint teams of Police/SF for their valour and determination to neutralize and avenge the killing of artiste Amreen Bhat within 24hrs. He also termed these operations as a big success and said that during past three days 10 terrorists including 3 from JeM and 7 from LeT proscribed terror outfits have been neutralized in the Kashmir valley,” the statement said.