Anantnag: Two local militants of Al-Badr, said to be behind the recent attacks on non-locals in Pulwama district, were killed in an overnight gunfight with government forces here in Pulwama district, police said on Thursday.
An army man was injured in the initial exchange of fire on Wednesday evening, police said. “He is stable,” a police official said.
The slain militants have been identified as Aijaz Hafiz of Dalipora and Shahid Ayub of Murran, both in Pulwama district.
“They were affiliated with Al-Badr,” Kashmir Range Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said. He said that the two slain militants were involved in many militancy-related incidents, including attacks on police, security forces, and the recent spree of attacks on non-locals.
Kumar said that the slain duo was involved in the attacks on non-local labourers in Pulwama district in March and April. At least 7 non-local labourers have been injured in different shootouts carried out by militants in Pulwama district recently.
“Hafiz was instrumental in recruiting Shahid, who had been working as an associate of the militants for a while now,” the police official said.
Kumar congratulated the police forces for a “clean and successful operation.”
The gunfight started late Wednesday evening in Mitrigam village of Pulwama district. “Soon after the army man was injured, the firing stopped in the area,” a senior police official from the area said. He said that fresh contact was established with the militants late at night after civilians were evacuated from near the site of the gunfight.
The police official said that the exchange of fire continued for a while before both the militants were neutralised in the wee hours of Thursday morning. “Bodies of both the militants, two AK rifles, and some incriminating material have been retrieved from the site of the gunfight,” the official said.
He said that the bodies of the militants will be taken to north Kashmir after the completion of medico-legal formalities and will be buried there at an undisclosed location.
Authorities have refused to hand over bodies of slain militants to their families since April 2020, citing Covid protocol as reason. The slain militants are being buried at undisclosed locations in north Kashmir, in presence of a few family members.
Meanwhile, mobile internet services were snapped in parts of Pulwama district and were yet to be restored while this report was being filed.

Suhail A Shah