Anantnag: Four militants, two of them locals and two Pakistani nationals, were killed in three separate gunfights with government forces in the last 24 hours, the police said on Tuesday.
Two of the gunfights were reported from Sopore and Kupwara districts in north Kashmir while the third took place in Shopian district in south Kashmir.
The first gunfight took place late Monday evening inPanipora forest area of Zaloora in Sopore district, where militants were cornered by government forces in a cordon and search operation.
“The militants were four in number, three of them Pakistanis and the fourth one a local,” Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said. He said that three of the militants, including one local, managed to escape while one of them was killed.
Kumar said that the documents retrieved from the possession of the slain militant led to the slain militant’s identification as Hanzalla, a resident of Lahore in Pakistan. “An Ak-47 rifle, 5 magazines, and some incriminating material were retrieved from his possession,” Kumar said.
A senior police official from Sopore said that an intensive search operation was carried out through the woods to track down the remaining militants, but they had managed to escape. “The operation was called off late Monday night,” he said.
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, another gunfight erupted in Chaktaras Kandi area of Kupwara district. “The operation was launched acting on inputs regarding militants’ presence in the area. Contact was soon established and the militants were asked to surrender,” a senior police official from Kupwara said.
He said that the militants did not lay down their arms and instead opened indiscriminate fire at the forces personnel. “The fire was retaliated, triggering a gunfight. Two militants were killed,” the official said.
The slain militants were later identified as a Pakistani and a local. The Pakistani went by a code name Tufail, while the local was a resident of Tral named Ishtiyaq Lone, who had joined the ranks recently.
“The two of them belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba,” IGP Kumar said. “Arms and ammunition have been retrieved from the bodies, along with some incriminating material,” he added.
Hours after the gunfight in Kupwara concluded, government forces launched another operation in an orchard area, here in Badimarg Aloora area of Shopian district.
“The militants hiding in an orchard opened fire soon after they sensed our presence. The fire was retaliated but the militants managed to change their position in the thick vegetation of the orchard area,” a senior police official from Shopian district said.
He said that rigorous combing in the area led to a second contact with the militants and the exchange of fire started again, “which this time around led to the killing of a militant.”
The police official said that the operation was still going on and the forces were ensuring there was no further militant presence in the area. Though the police are yet to disclose the identity of the militant slain in this gunfight, sources identified him as a BVSc (Bachelor of Veterinary Sciences) student from Kulgam.
“Nadeem Ahmad Rather, alias Dr Raja Nadeem, son of Abdul Rehman of Ashmuji area in Kulgam district, had gone missing in 2020,” a police source told Kashmir Reader. “Initial reports suggest he is the militant slain in the Shopian gunfight.”
There was however no official confirmation on the slain militant’s identity when this report was filed late Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the bodies of all the four slain militants have been sent for medico-legal formalities following which they will be sent to an undisclosed location in north Kashmir for burial.
Violence has spiraled in Kashmir valley in the last fortnight or so, with more than ten gunfights thus far resulting in the killing of about 20 militants and a policeman.
Attacks have also been rampant on non-locals, Kashmiri Pandits, off-duty policemen, and some politically affiliated locals in different parts of the valley.
Despite the violence, LG Manoj Sinha has said that militancy is on its last leg in Kashmir valley. “When a lamp is about to go off, it flickers more. Some elements from across the border are trying to disturb the peace here but they won’t succeed. Militancy is on its last leg now,” Sinha told reporters in Srinagar on Monday.

Suhail A Shah