Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz's assassin, six other terrorists gunned down in Shopian

Justice was delivered to 22-year-old Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz as security forces gunned down his assassin in a fierce gun-battle at Batagund village of Kapran in South Kashmir's Shopian district on Sunday.

Mohammad Abaas Bhat was among the seven militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad, who were neutralised in two separate anti-terror operations in Batagund and Khrew areas on Sunday. While a solider lost his life in the line of duty, another one sustained injuries in the Batagund operation.

Police said the six-member-militant group slain at Batagund was involved in the assassinations of dozens of policemen and ISIS-style executions in south Kashmir. The clashes claimed lives of several civillians.

According to police, they acted on credible information about the presence of terrorists in Batagund. A cordon and search operation was launched on Saturday night by the police and security forces. "As the searches were underway, security forces came under fire from the terrorists. The fire was retaliated and in the ensuing encounter, six terrorists were neutralised," a police spokesperson said.

Initially, one jawan of the 34 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) sustained injuries in the exchange of fire. He was evacuated to a nearby hospital and his condition has been reported as stable. However, another soldier Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad of 34 RR was grievously injured in the final phase of the encounter. He was taken to a hospital but, he succumed to his injuries.

Police identified the six terrorists slain at Batagund as Mushtaq Ahmad Mir alias Hammad alias Musha, Mohammad Abaas Bhat, Umar Majeed Ganaie alias Maaz, Abu Hanzalla alias Abdul Rehman, Mohommad Waseem Wagay alias Saifullah and Khalid Farooq Malik alias Rafi alias Talha.

The terrorist killed in a brief shootout at Khrew was identified as Waseem, a Pakistani national of Jaish-e-Mohommad.

"It was a combined group of Hizbul and LeT. Mushtaq Ahmad Mir alias Hammad was operating as district commander of LeT for Shopian. Mohommad Abaas Bhat, Waseem Wagay, Umar Majeed Ganaie and Khalid were with the Hizbul. Abaas was the district commander of Hizbul for Shopian and Umar Majeed was operating as district commander for Kulgam," said a police spokesman.

Police said Mohammad Abaas Bhat was wanted in the killing of Ummer Fayaz. Militants abducted Fayaz of Rajputana Rifles from the residence of his maternal uncle in Batpora village of Shopian district on May 10, 2017. He was taken to the neighbouring village of Harmain and was shot dead

"Abaas was earlier convicted for a murder case and sentenced for five years. After his release in April 2016 he joined the terrorist ranks. He was involved in the gruesome killing of civilians including the decapitating of 19-year-old Huzaif Ashraf. He was wanted in the killing of Lt Ummer, Advocate Imtiyaz Khan and four police personnel at Shopian, in August," said the spokesman.

Umer Majid Ganai, who had escaped from Batmaloo encounter and whose photo was recently circulated on social media showing his presence near clock tower Lal chowk, had figured in the killings of several policemen and civilians in the area since 2016. "He was involved in Pombai Bank guard attack case in which four policemen and two banks guards had lost their lives in 2017", he said

"One Pakistani terrorist killed in Batagund encounter was wanted in the gruesome killing of civilians in the area including the throat slitting video uploaded on Social media", said a police spokesman.

Massive clashes rocked the area after the killing of the six militants. A civilian was killed in the clashes while others including a toddler suffered pellet injuries. Joint Resistance Leadership of separatists have called for shutdown against the killings on Monday.