Srinagar: A militant was killed in an gunfight with government forces on Tuesday in Awantipora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The slain identified as Ufaid Farooq Lone alias Abu Muslim of Awantipora was affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba.
This was the first encounter between militants and government forces in south Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 by government of India on August 5.
While two encounters were reported from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district in August and September in which two militants and a policeman were killed, two more militants were slain in an ongoing gunfight in Ganderbal.
On Tuesday, the encounter broke out in Kaiwan village of Awantipora after a joint team of army and police launched a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in the area following inputs about the presence of militants in the area.
As searches were going on, the hiding militant opened fire on forces and in the retaliatory fire one militant was killed, a police spokesperson said.
“He (the slain militant) was wanted by law for his complicity in terror crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities,” it said.
Police quoting its records said that he had been carrying out militant activities in the areas of Awantipora across the belts of river Jehlum in the areas of Reshipora and in the nearby areas of Malangpora.
“Several terror crime cases were registered against him including Case FIR No. 38/2019 pertaining to grenade attack on security forces, case FIR No. 54/2019 pertaining to grenade attack on police station Awantipora, case FIR No. 122/2019 pertaining to civilian atrocities, threatening, intimidation and beating of locals at Padagampora besides enforcing shutdown of business establishments and forcible suspension of transport facilities in the area,” the police added.
It said the slain militant was also responsible for motivating the locals from the areas of Brawbhandina to join the militancy. “Incriminating material including arms & ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter. All these materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes,” police said.
Police has requested the people to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials.

Mir Iqbal