In the encounter, Havildar Baljeet Singh of the 50th battalion of Rashtriya Riffles was also killed. Hailing from Haryana, the 35-year-old soldier is survived by his wife, a two-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
A top Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, who helped the slain Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba Chief Commander Naveed Jatt escape from the jail last year, was killed by security forces in the Ratnipora village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday. An army soldier, who was part of the assault team, laid down his life in the line of duty.
Police said acting on a credible input about the presence of terrorists in Ratnipora, a cordon and search operation was launched jointly by the police and security forces on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
"As the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by terrorists. In the ensuing encounter, one terrorist was killed," said a police spokesman.
The slain terrorist has been identified as Hilal Ahmad Rather of Hizbul Mujahideen. Police said he had a long history of terror-related crimes and was wanted for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, including an attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities.
"He was also involved in the terrorist attack inside the premises of SMHS Hospital, in which two cops were martyred and a Pakistani terrorist Naveed Jatt alias Hanzalla had managed to escape," he said.
On February 6, 2018, Jatt had pulled off a dramatic escape from Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital after his associates shot dead two policemen accompanying him for a medical checkup. Eight months later on November 28, Jatt, who was the prime accused in the assassination of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was killed in the Kuthpora-Chattergam area of Central Kashmir's Budgam district.
In the encounter, Havildar Baljeet Singh of the 50th battalion of Rashtriya Riffles was also killed. Hailing from Haryana, the 35-year-old soldier is survived by his wife, a two-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
Police said incriminating material, including arms and ammunition, was recovered from the site of encounter. "All these materials have been taken as case records for the purpose of investigation," said the spokesman.
This is the second major encounter in troubled south Kashmir region in the last two days. On Sunday, security forces dealt a major blow to the Hizbul Mujahedeen and Lashkar-e-Taiba, when they killed five top terrorists involved in the gruesome killing of an army man last year, in South Kashmir's Kulgam district.
Last Wednesday, security forces killed top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander in a brief gunfight at Chakoora village. Irfan Ahmad Sheikh was the district commander of the LeT for Pulwama.
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