Three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in an encounter in south Kashmir's Pulwama on Friday.
Another group of militants was trapped in Pulwama’s Lelhar area in the evening.
“Three Hizb militants were killed during an operation, launched following a specific input provided by the Awantipora Police regarding the presence of terrorists in Mandoora village in Tral area,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said. “They were given an opportunity to surrender. However, they fired indiscriminately.”
Police identified the slain militants as Waris Hassan, Aarif Bashir and Ahtishamul Haq, all residents of Pulwama’s Awantipora.
Police said they were a part of the groups involved in several terror crimes. “Once again we appeal to the parents of the local misguided youth to come forward and help the police in bringing them back, as they are always welcome to return to the mainstream,” Mr. Kumar said.
He asked parents to take note of the activities of their wards, “as gullible youth are falling prey to anti-national elements through social media”.
Police said incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the site of the encounter. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe the militants’ complicity in other terror crimes,” police added.
Gunfight on
In a separate operation, security forces trapped a group of armed militants in Pulwama’s Lelhar on Friday evening.
An official said a gunfight between the trapped militants and the security forces was on. “The security forces are zeroing in on the encounter site to neutralise the militants,” police said.
On the Srinagar encounter that took place on December 30, which came under a cloud after the families of the three slain youth claimed they were students, IGP Kumar said: “The claims made by the parents are totally baseless and wrong. All the three were in touch and were travelling together on the day of the encounter. Two of them were talking to people across the Line of Control (LoC), the IP address retrieved from their damaged phones suggested. The third was in touch with the top commanders across the LoC. Content like the chats etc, is difficult to retrieve as their phones were damaged.”
Meanwhile, the IGP said the police would set up a portal to de-radicalise youth in Kashmir and would offer counselling also to the misguided youth. “It will be a useful tool to de-radicalise the youth,” he added.
