Anantnag: Three local militants affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), ‘involved in the recent killing of a Sarpanch’ were killed in a gunfight with government forces in Nowgam area of Srinagar, police said.
The militants were a part of LeT’s offshoot, The Resistance Front (TRF).
The slain militants have been identified as Adil Nabi Teli, a resident of the Chandhara area in Pampore; Shakir Ahmad Tantray, a resident of Ronipora in the Shopian district, and Yasir Ahmad Wagay, a resident of Frisal area in Kulgam district.
“They were all active since last year and have been involved in many anti-security forces and anti-civilian activities,” police said, adding that the trio was involved in the recent killing of a Sarpanch in Khanmoh area on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Besides, Teli and his other associates were also involved in the killing of Inspector Parvez Ahmad in Nowgam area last year. “They were planning to attack security forces,” it said.
Kashmir Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar, termed the killing of militants a “huge success”. “The operation was conducted without any collateral damage,” Kumar has said.
The gunfight was triggered, soon after a cordon and search operation was launched in the Nowgam area by government forces in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. “We had prior inputs regarding the presence of these militants in the area and soon after the cordon was launched the house they were hiding in was zeroed in on,” a senior police official from the area said.
The official said that the militants were given a chance to surrender but they did not pay heed and instead opened indiscriminate fire. “The fire was retaliated, triggering a gunfight,” the official said.
In the shootout, all three militants were killed, the police official said. Bodies of the militants along with incriminating material, arms, and ammunition were retrieved from the site of the gunfight.
Bodies of the militants, the official said, would be sent to north Kashmir for a quiet burial. Authorities in Kashmir have refused to hand over bodies of militants to their families, since April 2020, citing Covid protocol.
Local sources said that the house militants were hiding in, suffered major damage during the gunfight.
Following the gunfight, train services between Baramulla and Banihal were suspended for the day.
There has been a significant uptick in violence across the Kashmir valley this month. While unidentified gunmen have been targeting and killing people affiliated with politics and personnel of the government forces, the forces have upped their anti-militancy operations as well.

Suhail A Shah