Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): In a huge success, security forces today killed Riyaz Naikoo, a top commander of Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen, and his associate in an encounter in Pulwama district of Kashmir.
Two more terrorists were killed in a separate encounter in the same district.
Naikoo, the most wanted terrorist who was involved in several major attacks and recruitment of youth in militancy, was gunned down in a house in Beighpora area of Awantipora.
The encounter started this morning, hours after security forces laid siege of a house after receiving a specific input about the presence of Naikoo and his associate.
The killing of 32-year-old Naikoo is expected to deal a severe blow to the outfit and its recruitment of Kashmiri youth into terrorism as he played a key role in it.
Naikoo was a successor to Hizbul Mujahideen’s poster-boy commander Burhan Wani, who was killed in July 2016 in an encounter with security forces. Naikoo was a mathematics teacher before he took to militancy in 2012. He was wanted in 11 terror-related cases and carried a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head.
After Zakir Musa’s defection from Hizbul Mujahideen to form his own outfit called ‘Ansar Gazwat ul Hind’, Naikoo took command of the terror outfit in Kashmir. To recall, Zakir Musa was eliminated in an operation last year, police said.
Naikoo had been continuously making audio and video clips and putting them on social media to motivate youth to join militancy and went on recruiting new boys. He was responsible for a large number of youths getting into militant ranks and indulging in serious violence against local population and security forces, police said.
He was a mastermind behind the revival of HM outfit in Jammu and Kashmir, police said. He also released videos/audios on a number of occasions, carrying pro-Pakistan and separatist propaganda. Naikoo executed a series of attacks on policemen, security forces and civilians, they said.
The HM commander also resorted to brutal killings of civilians, branding them police or SF informers. To collect funds for his outfit, he looted orchard owners and farmers.
He was also collecting money from illicit cultivation of opium and ‘bhang’ (cannabis) in south Kashmir. “His outfit figured in narco trade case in Jammu where a huge sum of sale proceeds was transferred to one of his contacts,” police said.
Naikoo had a number of FIR’s registered against him for his involvement in many heinous crimes.
He was involved in the killing of Haji Ghulam Mohd Dar, father of a panchayat sarpanch in Dogripora in March 2014, firing on police bus near Bhatpora Tokena, the killing of Ghulam Mohi-Ud-din Dar, killing of Javaid Akbar Khanday, resident of Khandaypora, killing of a Police Head Constable Ashiq Hussain Mir at Padgampoara crossing, the kidnapping of Constable Naseer Ahmad, looting of nine weapons from the residence of ex MLA Wachi, killing six migrant laborers in Kulgam, killing of truck drivers and fruit traders after August 5, police said.
Apart from this, he also released an audio tape threatening attacks on the jail staff after preferential treatment being provided to militants and the separatists lodged in various jails was discontinued.
In the second encounter at Sharshali today, two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed. The identification of killed terrorists is being ascertained, police said. Incriminating material including arms and ammunition were recovered from them.
Meanwhile, internet and mobile phone services (SMS+voice calling) were suspended until further by authorities today. A strict curfew was also imposed in the Valley in view of the law and order situation, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said.
The latest crackdown on terrorists came a day after J&K DGP Dilbagh Singh said that anti-militancy operations will be intensified across Kashmir. He was talking to media after a wreath-laying ceremony of three jawans killed in a terror attack in Kupwara district.
Earlier on Sunday, an Army Colonel, a Major, two soldiers and a J&K Police sub-inspector lost their lives in an encounter in Handwara, in which two terrorists were also killed.
