Khonmoh encounter: Toll reaches three after recovery of another body

Srinagar: The death toll in the Khonmoh encounter has risen to three after locals and police recovered the body of another militant from the encounter site, police said.

The encounter broke out after an unsuccessful bid by the militants to snatch the weapon of personal security guard of BJP leader Anwar Khan, at Balhama.

While concluding the search and sanitisation of the operation site, police recovered the body of the third militant. He has been identified as Hamas a foreign militant,” a police spokesperson said.

He said after the encounter ended, the area was sealed to carry out further searches on cooling of rubbles to ensure no damage was caused by any explosive material left over at the encounter site.

The police started a sanitisation operation in which the area was to be cleared of any unexploded shells/mines after the encounter ended. In this process, the teams of police and other security forces, including the bomb disposal squad, were put on the job, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar, Imtiaz Ismail Parray said that the body of the third militant was recovered by the search party.

The officer identified the slain militant as Abu Hamas, a top commander of Pakistan.

“It took us time to sanitize the encounter site due to apprehensions of the presence of explosive material amid protests going on in the area,” SSP said.

Pertinently, forces on Friday had recovered two bodies (both locals) from the debris. The duo was identified as identified as Rasiq Nabi Bhat of Tral and Shabir Dar of Awantipora.

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