One of those killed in encounter a Pak national; a civilian too lost life in clashes with forces
Two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists, including a Pakistani national, were killed on Tuesday in an encounter while a civilian died and several others sustained injuries during clashes with security forces in the sensitive Shopian district on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, a civilian injured in the forces' firing in Sopore on June 25 succumbed, while a 50-year-old died of cardiac arrest after rumours spread his son has been trapped in the encounter. The rumours later turned out to be false.
Police said pursuing credible leads about the presence of terrorists in Kundallan area of Shopian district, a joint patrol of the security forces launched searches in area in the wee hours of Tuesday.
"As the searches were going on, terrorists hiding inside the house fired upon the search party. The search party in their guarded response fired back thereby establishing contact with the terrorists leading to an encounter. Some of the civilians in the nearby houses were quickly evacuated by the security forces," said a police spokesman.
Police said during the encounter all the hiding terrorists were eliminated successfully by the joint patrol of the security forces. The killed terrorists were identified as Sameer Ahmad Sheikh a local and Babar from Pakistan.
Police said Sameer Ahmad Sheikh of Rawalpora Shopian was a school dropout and had joined the terrorist outfit JeM after he was reported missing from his home since April 2018. "On the basis of documents available the other terrorist has been identified as Babar, a JeM commander of Pakistan. They were involved in many attacks on the security establishments and civilian atrocities," he said.
Clashes rocked the area after some people pelted stones and tried to march towards the encounter site to help the terrorists to escape. Dozens of people were injured in the clashes of whom one of them succumbed in the hospital.
"Some civilians were also injured in cross firing at the site of encounter that were later evacuated to the hospital for medical attention. One of the injured persons later succumbed to his injuries while the other injured are stated to be stable now. Some arms and ammunition were also recovered from the encounter site," said the spokesman.
Chief Medical Officer, Shopian, Dr Abdul Rasheed said they have received 123 injured in three hospitals. "Six of them have suffered bullet injuries and rest were having pellet wounds," he said.
Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) of separatists have called for shutdown on Wednesday against the killings. "The Joint Resistance Leadership has called for a state-wide shutdown on Wednesday to protest the use of unbridled force on unarmed civilians in Shopian," said a spokesman of JRL.
RUMOUR KILLS
- Believing his terrorist son is among those trapped in encounter, a 50-year-old died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday.
- Mohommad Ishaq Naikoo had just woken up when news spread that his son is one of those trapped.
- Later the rumours turned out to be false. Zeenat Naikoo had joined terrorist ranks last month.
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