2 Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants gunned down by security forces in J&K's Kulgam

SRINAGAR: Two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants were gunned down by the security forces during a clash in a remote area of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Kulgam district on Wednesday.

Additional Director General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar identified the slain men as Basit Amin Bhat and Saqib Ahmad Lone, both residents of Kulgam.

The J&K police said acting on specific input, its counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) along with Army’s 1 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid siege to Kulgam’s Kujjar area early Wednesday to take on a group of militants hiding there.

“During the search operation, as the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon them. The fire was retaliated effectively leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists linked with proscribed terrorist outfit HM were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter,” the police said in a statement here.

It claimed that as per the police records both were involved in several terror crime cases. Two AK series rifles with other incriminating material were found on the slain militants, the police added.

“ADGP Kashmir congratulated the joint team of Police and security forces for conducting a successful operation without any collateral damage and termed the operation a big success,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, a student identified as Sahil Bashir was shot and wounded by unknown gunmen in neighbouring Anantnag district’s Watrigam Wanihama area on Wednesday evening. The police said that the youth who had received a bullet wound in the neck was immediately evacuated to a nearby hospital.