62 militants killed in Kashmir this year

Srinagar, April 28

The survival rate of militants in Kashmir has decreased as security forces killed 62 militants this year, Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said today. Of them, 39 belong to Lashkar-e-Toiba, 15 to Jaish-e-Mohammed, six to Hizbul and two to Al-Badr.

The IGP attributed the success of security forces against militants to enhanced human and technical intelligence. “As many as 32 militants got neutralised within three months of their joining terror ranks. Of 62 slain militants, 15 were foreigners,” he said.

Meanwhile, one more militant has been gunned down during the Pulwama encounter. The overnight gunfight had started yesterday afternoon when a terrorist was shot by security men. The two Al-Badr militants have been identified as Aijaz Hafiz and Shahid Ayub. Besides, a soldier was also injured.

They had been involved in a series of attacks on migrant labourers in Pulwama in the month of March-April, the police said. In April, six non-local workers have been attacked by the militants in south Kashmir. The police said two AK assault rifles had been seized. The operation had started after security forces got inputs regarding the presence of terrorists in Mitrigam village of Pulwama, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said that as per the police records, both the killed militants were categorised terrorists and part of groups involved in several terror attacks on police/security forces and civilians. The killed terrorists were also involved in a series of recent terror attacks on migrant labourers in Pulwama.

IED found along Jammu highway, defused

• A major tragedy was averted when an improvised explosive device was found in Sidhra area of Jammu on Thursday.
• Police teams were rushed to the spot. Later, the device was defused by a bomb squad, said SSP Chandan Kohli.