Two militants of ’Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’ killed in encounter in Kashmir

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, Mar 16 2018,  DH News: Two militants believed to be members of ’Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’ were killed while a paramilitary trooper was injured in an overnight encounter between security forces and ultras in Khonmoh area on the outskirts of Srinagar, police said on Friday.

The encounter erupted Thursday late afternoon at Khonmoh after militants attacked policemen guarding a state BJP leader. The policemen repulsed the attack during which one of them was wounded.

Immediately after the attack contingents of army, paramilitary CRPF and police cordoned off the area. Reports said, militants while trying to escape from the area were holed up inside a residential locality.

"The exchange of fire started after militants refused the offer of security forces to lay down arms," police said. "Several residential houses were damaged in the stand-off and the holed up militants were neutralised in the morning. A CRPF paramilitary trooper was also wounded while fighting these militants."

The slain militants have been identified as Owais Ahmad and Shabir Ahmad, both locals. A top police official said that the bodies were identified by their families and added they belonged to ’Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’, Al Qaeda cell in Kashmir, which has been in headlines since its formation in July last year.

Earlier this week, a militant from Hyderabad city of Telangana, identified by police as Muhammad Taufeeq, was killed along with his two Kashmir associates in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The Ansar claimed that Taufeeq had started his jihadi journey in 2017 after migration from Hyderabad city to the mountains of Kashmir and was among the first in the ranks of the outfit led by Zakir Musa.

Although Toufeeq was not the first one to come down to Kashmir to join militancy, his being associated with an international terror outfit has caused alarm bells within the security establishment in Kashmir who hope it shouldn’t become a trend for others to follow.

"JK police hopes that Taufeeq is the first and last militant (from any Indian State) to join Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind in Kashmir. ISIS is not in the interest of Kashmir and I am hopeful it ends with him," state police chief Shesh Pal Vaid told reporters.

Ten years back, two militants from Kerala associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba had died fighting security forces in Kupwara. And then there was Sandeep Kumar, a militant from Uttar Pradesh, who was captured by the police in the south Kashmir last year. He was also a member of Lashkar.

"We are looking into the developments very closely. We can’t say whether he (Taufeeq) was the first or last militant from any Indian state to join IS and to operate in Kashmir," inspector general of police (IGP) Kashmir, Swayam Prakash Pani said.

A number of militants from various terror outfits, including indigenous Hizbul Mujahideen, have joined the Ansar in recent months, thus swelling its ranks.