Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Two militants who were hiding in a local mosque in Meej area of Pampore in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district were killed early this morning, taking the total number of militants killed in this operation since yesterday to three, police said today.
Officials said that one terrorist was killed early yesterday morning while two entered a local mosque and didn’t come out despite repeated announcements made by the police and Army through loudspeakers.
“The operation was halted though the cordon was tightened from all sides to ensure terrorists don’t flee. Today early morning, both the terrorists hiding in the mosque were killed in a clean operation,” officials added.
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Zone, Vijay Kumar said that “patience and professionalism worked” at the Meej, Pampore operation.
“No use of firing and IED. Used tear smoke shells only. Maintained sanctity of the mosque. Both militants hiding inside the mosque neutralized,” the IGP said in a tweet.
In two separate encounters, the total number of terrorists killed has reached eight in the last 24 hours.
Pertinently, IGP Kashmir Zone, Vijay Kumar recently said that militancy stands almost wiped out from South Kashmir and the police would now shift its focus on north Kashmir from next month.
This year so far, 102 terrorists including top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed which includes Reyaz Naikoo, the chief operational commander of Hizbul, Bashir Koka of Lashkar and Abdur Rehman alias Fouji Bhai of Pakistan, who was an IED expert of Jaish.
Figures suggest that 72 terrorists, including five killed in the last 24 hours, have been killed since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in Kashmir on March 20. In the last two weeks, 32 terrorists were killed in two southern districts of Shopian and Pulwama.
-CHK
