Six militants of the Ghazwat-ul-Hind, including Zakir Musa’s deputy, were killed in a swift operation in Pulwama’s Tral on Saturday. The outfit, considered an al-Qaeda affiliate, now has only three members.
“All the six militants hiding in an orchard were killed in the morning. It was a clean operation. We faced no law and order problem. It has dented the capabilities of the outfit significantly,” IGP (Kashmir) S.P. Pani told The Hindu .
The militants were spotted in a ditch around 8 a.m. in the Arampora area of Awantipora, which has been the Ghazwat’s headquarters since it was launched by Musa last May.
Six militants of the al-Qaeda affiliate Ghazwat-ul-Hind, who were killed on Saturday in Awantipora, all belonged to Pulwama district. They were identified as Soliha Mohammad Akhoon, deputy to Ghazwat founder Zakir Musa, Faisal, Nadeem Ahmad Sofi, Rasiq Mir, Rouf and Umar.
“All six terrorists were wanted for their complicity in a series of terror crimes including attack on security establishments,” said the police.
The police said Soliha had a history of terror crimes since 2015 and was involved in several terror attacks on security establishments. “Arms and ammunition, including rifles, were recovered from the site of encounter,” said the police.
“The militants did not put up any major resistance and were killed in a brief encounter,” the police said.
Musa, who joined militant ranks during Hizb commander Burhan Wani’s recruitment drive in 2013-14, comes from a middle-class family. His father is a senior officer and one brother a doctor from Pulwama's Tral. He later associated himself with the aAl-Qaeda wing in J&K. The group has faced criticism from Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Dismissing the Punjab police’s recent reports about Musa’s presence in Ludhiana, sources in the J&K police said the militant was tracked in Tral-Awantipora area recently and may be hiding with his last two associates.
Several hundred people participated in the funerals of the slain militants who were wrapped in the black shrouds typical of global militant outfits rather than the traditional green.
Published - December 22, 2018 09:53 am IST
