M A I N   N E W S

5 Hizb militants gunned down in central Kashmir
Azhar Qadri
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 1
In a major anti-insurgency operation of recent months, five militants have been killed in an encounter in the dense forest region of central Kashmir, the police and the Army said today.

The militants were killed in a gunfight after an operation was launched by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Operation Group (SOG) and the Army's 24 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in the Phalinard area of Wangat forest of Ganderbal district, sources said.

Ganderbal is located less than 30 km from Srinagar.

The pre-dawn operation was launched on a specific information about the presence of militants in the area and contact was established with a group of militants around 7:30 am, the sources said.

The first militant was killed at 8:30 am and the second was neutralised an hour later, an Army source said.

He said the militants were cornered inside a “dhok” - a hutment - which was then blasted in which three more militants were killed.

“After a fierce gunfight, five militants have been killed,” a police spokesman here said.

The spokesman said all the five militants were Pakistani nationals. Four of them were operating as Abu Bakr, Abu Khalid, Abdul Gazi and Murtaza while the identity of the fifth militant was being ascertained, the spokesman added.

The spokesman said all the five militants belonged to the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. The police said the nationality of the five militants was established by the documents and diaries which were recovered from them.

The police had been regularly receiving intelligence inputs about the presence of this militant group in the upper reaches of Wangat forest area for nearly one month, the source said, hinting that the group had either recently infiltrated into the Valley from across the Line of Control or had entered the Ganderbal district from the adjoining Bandipora district.

Five AK-47 rifles, 18 AK-47 magazines, two under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) and a cache of ammunition was recovered from their possession, the police spokesman said.

Last month, one of the longest counter-insurgency operation of recent times, which lasted for seven days, was carried out in the nearby Chattergul forest of Ganderbal district in which two militants were killed.

Ganderbal district acts as a transit route for militants travelling from Bandipora - which borders the Line of Control in north Kashmir - to south Kashmir districts.

The district has largely been cleared of militants as two of the longest surviving militants of the region - Mushtaq Khan alias Mushtaq Jhangi and Ghulam Nabi War alias Haq Nawaz, both residents of Ganderbal - were killed in two separate operations in October last year and July this year.

In recent days, there has been a sudden spurt in the encounters between the forces and militants as infiltration attempts have spiked from across the Line of Control, which a top police official termed as being “seasonal”.

Last week, two militants and a soldier were killed in a gun battle in Handwara area of Kupwara district while two more militants were killed in an operation near Uri town of Baramulla district in north Kashmir.

Ammo Seized

The militants were killed in a gunfight in the Phalinard area of Wangat forest of Ganderbal district

Five AK-47 rifles, 18 magazines and a cache of ammunition were seized

The pre-dawn operation was jointly launched by the J-K Police and the Army on a specific information