Two local Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants, believed to be behind a targeted killing of a policeman, were killed in a night-long anti-militancy operation on Monday.
“One of the killed terrorists, Abid Shah, was involved in the recent killing of unarmed policeman, Constable Reyaz Ahmad, at his residential house at Gadoora area of Pulwama on May 13,” Vijay Kumar, Inspector-General of Police, said.
The two JeM militants were surrounded by a joint team of the Army, the police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday after the Kulgam Police generated a specific input about their presence in Gundipora village of Pulwama. A joint cordon and search operation was launched and the hiding terrorists were trapped inside the residential house of Nazir Ahmad Mir.
“To avoid any collateral damage due to darkness, the operation was suspended during at night and in the early hours the operation was resumed. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists, Shah and Saqib Azad Sofi, son of Amshipora, Shopian were killed,” the police said.
Two A-K rifles were recovered from the encounter site, the police said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kumar appreciated the joint team for tracking and neutralising the terrorists involved in the recent killing of a policeman in Pulwama.
He said the police have succeeded to a large extent in preventing youth from taking up the arms and are working on multi-dimensional fronts to prevent local terrorist recruitment. “Those who motivate and lure young boys towards terrorism are being booked under the Public Safety Act (which allows detention without a trial for two years),” Mr. Kumar said.
He said new recruits were being tracked through technical surveillance and were being brought back.
