2 militants killed in Kulgam

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, May 25

Two militants were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Kulgam district of south Kashmir, some 80 km from Srinagar city, this morning.

While there has been no official word on the identity of the militants, sources in the police said the militants were locals — Adil Wani and Shaeen Thoker.

“Both are residents of the neighbouring Shopian district. The affiliation of the militants is still being ascertained, however, preliminary reports suggest that they were affiliated to the al-Qaeda offshoot, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind,” said a police source.

The gunfight took place around 8 am in Mirwani village of the DH Pora area in Kulgam.

A senior police officer said there were specific inputs regarding the presence of militants in the area following which a cordon and search operation was launched. The gunfight concluded in a couple of hours.

“The militants were located to be holed up in a residential house. They were asked to surrender but they chose to fire instead,” the police officer said, adding that the fire was retaliated and in the ensuing gunfight, the militants were killed.

Local sources said security forces fired explosives at the house in which the militants were hiding, “damaging the house in the process.”

Sub-Divisional Police Officer, DH Pora, Ashiq Hussain said the house suffered minor damage.

“The house is standing and has some minor damage to it,” Hussain said.

The authorities snapped the 2G mobile Internet in Kulgam soon after the gunfight erupted. The Internet services had not been restored at the time of filing of this report.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the militants were retrieved and would be sent for burial in north Kashmir after medico-legal formalities.

The authorities in Kashmir have stopped handing over the bodies of the slain militants to their families.