Anantnag: Police on Wednesday said that they along with army and the CRPF killed at least four militants, one of them a commander of The Resistance Front (TRF) militant outfit, in two different gunfights here in Kulgam district.
The commander of TRF has been identified as Afaq Sikander by the police. The other three militants were yet to be identified when this report was being filed.
“Some families have been called in for identification. The details will be given out soon after the bodies are identified,” a police official said.
The two gunfights, which started more or less at the same time, took place in Pombai and Gopalpora villages of Kulgam district.
A senior police official from the area said that there were inputs regarding presence of militants in these areas, following which operations were launched in these villages.
“The first contact was established in Pombai village, where we had inputs that militants were having a meeting,” the police official said, adding that the militants were given a chance to surrender but they chose to fire indiscriminately.
He said that the fire was retaliated and two militants were killed in the exchange of fire. Bodies, he said, were retrieved along with arms and ammunition.
“The militants are yet to be identified. We have called some families that we suspect the militants belong to.” the official said, adding that the bodies will be sent to north Kashmir for burial following identification and other medico-legal formalities.
Soon after contact was established in Pombai, the police said another gunfight erupted in Gopalpora area of the district.
“In Gopalpora as well, militants did not pay any heed to repeated offers of surrender, but they opened indiscriminate fire,” the police official said.
He said that two bodies have been retrieved from the site of the gunfight. He said that one of the slain militants has been identified as Afaq Sikander, a Pakistani national.
“We are trying to identify the other militant,” the official said. As per the new norm, bodies of the militants will be sent to an undisclosed location for burial.
The authorities last year cited Covid protocol for not handing the bodies of the slain militants over to their families.
Since then, only a few family members are allowed to be present at the time of the burial in north Kashmir.

Suhail A Shah