Anantnag: A Jaish-e-Muhammad militant, who was a Pakistani national, was killed in a gunfight with government forces Friday in Shopian district of South Kashmir, police said.
The slain militant has been identified as Hanees, alias Kamran Bhai. “The slain has been active along the Kulgam-Shopian border for over seven to eight months now,” Superintendent of Police Shopian Tanushree said.
The gunfight took place in Kapran area of Shopian district early Friday morning, where government forces had launched a cordon and search operation following inputs about the presence of militants in the area.
“The hiding militant opened indiscriminate fire as soon as he sensed he had been surrounded,” a senior police official from the area said, adding that the fire was retaliated, triggering a gunfight.
“The gunfight ended with the killing of the militant,” the official said, “The body, along with arms and ammunition, has been retrieved from the site of the gunfight,”
He said that the slain will be buried at an undisclosed location in North Kashmir, following the completion of medico-legal formalities. The police have been burying all slain militants at undisclosed locations, and have refused to hand over the bodies of even local militants to their families for more than two years now.
Tanushree spoke to media persons following today’s gunfight and called the operation a huge success, given there have been inputs about Fidayeen attacks being planned pouring in regularly.
“There are no prior inputs of the slain militant having been involved in any of the incidents, but he would have been a danger in the future,” she said, “Amid inputs of Fidayeen attacks neutralizing a Pakistani militant is mitigating a future threat,”
She also ruled out his involvement in the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit recently, in the Choudhrygund area of the district. “That attack was carried out by LeT and this militant belonged to Jaish. We are investigating that case and the perpetrators will be identified soon,” she said.
More than 150 militants have been killed this year in different gunfights, only 33 of them Pakistani nationals. “The rest of them were locals,” a police official told Kashmir Reader. Militants, on the other hand, have been targeting Kashmiri Pandits, non-locals, policemen on leave, and politically affiliated locals.

Suhail A Shah