Srinagar: The Jammu & Kashmir Police has urged the Telangana Police to “verify and share necessary details” regarding the militant who was killed in an encounter with government forces at Hakoora area of Anantnag district earlier this week.

Two Kashmiri militants Eisa Fazili and Syed Owais Shafi were also killed in the encounter.

In a letter to the Director General of Police, Telangana, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag, has written that as per the social media, the militant is “Mohammad Taufeeq @ Sultan Zabul Al Hind @ Abu Zarr Al Hind who had come over to valley in 2017 from Hyderabad (probably Khamam)”.

“As such, it is requested that the matter may be verified and necessary details shared with this office at the earliest,” the SSP added in the letter. Interestingly, the identity of the third militant killed in Anantnag encounter was not ascertained and police buried him in north Kashmir’s Uri on Tuesday where generally foreign militants are buried.

But on Tuesday, the Ansar Ghazwatul Hind said the militant “Muhammad Taufeeq was martyred along with two other mujahideen Eesa Fazili and Syed Owais in battle, on 13 March 2018 in the south Kashmir district of Islamabad (Anantnag).” The Ansar on its official website Al-Nasr also said that Taufeeq “started his jihadi journey in 2017 after making hijrah (migration) from India’s Hyderabad city to the mountains of Kashmir and was among the first in the ranks of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind”. “His (Taufeeq’s) jihadi names were Sultan Zabul Al-Hind and Abu Zarr Al Hindi,” Ansar added.

Director General of Police, J&K, S.P. Vaid, also shared a press note regarding Muhammad Taufeeq on Twitter, which reads, “It is learnt that Md. Toufeeq, age 26 years, N/O (native of) Manuguru (in Telangana) died in an encounter with security forces on night 11/12 March in Hakoora of Anantnag District along with two other Kashmiri militants.

He was radicalized into Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in “terrorist” activities of ISIS.

He was not wanted into any of the criminal cases in Telangana state. Further details are being verified and will be updated to the media accordingly.” (GNS)

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