‘One involved in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit, another in the killing of a Nepali national”

Anantnag: Three local militants, affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), were killed Tuesday in a gunfight with government forces in the Shopian.
The gunfight has come after a month of a lull in encounters between militants and government forces in South Kashmir. The last gunfight was reported on November 20, in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district, wherein police had claimed that an arrested “hybrid militant” was killed . In Shopian encounter, Police identified two slain militants among the three. “They have been identified as Lateef Lone of Shopian district and Umer Nazir of Anantnag district,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Vijay Kumar said.
He said that Lone was involved in the killing of a Kashmir pandit, Pooran Kishan Bhat on October 16, earlier this year. Bhat was shot at and killed outside his residence in the Chowdhrygund area of the Shopian district.
“Umer Nazir has been found involved in the killing of Till Bahadur Thapa of Nepal,” Kumar said. Thapa was a peon at a private school in Anantnag and was shot at, and injured inside the school on November 3 by unidentified gunmen. He later succumbed to his injuries at SKIMS in the Soura area of Srinagar.
Kumar has said that an AK-47 and two pistols have been retrieved from the possession of the three militants killed today, while the identity of the third slain militant was being ascertained.
The gunfight took place in the Munjh Marg area of the Shopian district, where the forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the wee hours of Tuesday morning following inputs regarding the presence of militants in the area.
“The area was cordoned off and the location of the militants was soon ascertained,” a senior police official from the area said, “The militants were given a chance to lay down their arms, but they opened indiscriminate fire which was retaliated, triggering a gunfight,”
He said that all three hiding militants were neutralized during the gunfight. “We have retrieved their bodies along with arms, ammunition, and some incriminating material. The bodies will be sent to North Kashmir for burial,” the official said.
The authorities have refused to hand over the bodies of slain militants to their families, citing Covid protocol, since April 2020. The practice of burying militants at undisclosed locations in presence of a few family members has continued ever since. This has prevented people from holding massive funeral prayers for slain militants, wherein tens of thousands of people would normally participate.
Apart from the past month, the year thus far has been quite violent. The gunfights this year have resulted in the killing of more than 140 militants, around 40 of them Pakistani nationals.
The militants on the other hand have been targeting Kashmiri Pandits, non-Locals, and policemen on vacation.

KR Desk