Security forces killed three terrorists, including a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, in an encounter in Anantnag district this morning, in a major breakthrough in the anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
Apart from Hizbul Mujahideen commander Masood Ahmed Bhat, two terrorists were also eliminated in the operation in Khulchohar area of the south Kashmir district.
Police officials say that with Masood’s death, the entire Doda district in Jammu region has become totally free of terrorists as he was one of the last surviving terrorists there.
The Army, J&K police and CRPF launched the operation jointly. After the three terrorists were killed, the army recovered one AK rifle and two pistols from the encounter site.
“With today’s operation at Khull Chohar Anantnag by Anantnag Police along with Local RR unit in which two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists including one district commander and one Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Masood are neutralised. Doda district in Jammu Zone becomes totally militancy free one again as Masood was last surviving terrorist of Doda District,” J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh said.
“Masood was involved in a rape case filed by Doda police and was on the run ever since. He later joined Hizbul Mujahideen and shifted his area of operation to Kashmir,” he added.
“There is a presence of foreign terrorists in the upper reaches of Kokernag, Tral and Khrew. There are about 29 foreign terrorists active in South Kashmir and we will neutralise them when they come down and our sources inform us (about them),” Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said.
The IG also added that the security forces have achieved a huge success by “wiping out” Hizbul Mujahidden from Tral area of Pulwama district and the aim is to wipe out terrorism from south Kashmir.
Last week, state police chief Dilbag Singh had claimed that over 100 terrorists have been neutralized in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
“During the last about five-and-a-half months, over 100 terrorists have been neutralized, out of them 50 plus were from the Hizbul Mujahideen, around 20 from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, 20 from the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the rest from smaller outfits like Al-Badr, Ansar Gazwatul Hind,” Mr Singh said.
The DGP said that the credit goes to the people of the union territory for cooperating with the security forces, else this operation would not have been successful.
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