3 Jaish militants killed in Budgam encounter

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

Security forces, in a joint operation, killed three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists in an overnight encounter in Budgam district. This has lead to the elimination of 11 such ultras in the past one week.

According police officials, the latest encounter erupted at Zowla Chadoora on Thursday evening when the police and the Army launched a cordon-and-search operation following information that three JeM militants were present in the area. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) joined the operation after the encounter broke out.

2 may be foreigners

• Vijay Kumar, IGP, Kashmir, says one of them, Waseem, was from Srinagar while the other two are likely to be foreigners.
• With this, all listed Srinagar ultras are killed barring one Moomin, who became active recently.
• In nine days, Jaish has lost 15 terrorists, including top commanders, in different ops.

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir zone) Vijay Kumar said the fighting continued throughout the night and the three JeM terrorists were killed on Friday morning.

“One of the slain terrorists is Waseem, a resident of Srinagar. Most probably, the other two are foreigners,” Kumar said, adding three AK-56 rifles, eight magazines and documents were seized from the site. He said Waseem had been involved in several cases of killing civilians.

“After the death of Waseem, there is only one terrorist (Moomin) left who hails from Srinagar. He became active recently,” Kumar said, adding that they had neutralised all the listed militants of Srinagar.

Eleven terrorists, including top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish, have been killed in Kashmir. In the last nine days, the Pakistan-based Jaish has lost 15 terrorists, including top commanders in different operations, officials added.