Militant groups clash in Shopian, one killed

Samaan Lateef

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Srinagar, September 5

A man was shot dead in Shopian district on Monday. The police have termed the incident a rivalry between two militant groups.

Manzoor Ahmad Nangroo, 30, of Hanjan-Rajpura village in Pulwama, who worked as a cook, was returning from work along with his two associates in an autorickshaw on Sunday evening when militants, waiting in a vehicle at Aglar, abducted all of them. Later, they released them, barring Nangroo, a police official told The Tribune. His bullet-ridden body was found in an orchard in Shopian.

ADGP Vijay Kumar said, “A preliminary investigation reveals that the killing is a result of group rivalry between terrorist groups. The terrorists involved in the crime will be identified soon.”

The deceased was the brother of Pakistan-based Ashiq Nangroo, a Jaish-e-Mohammed militant. In 2020, his name surfaced in drone droppings in Punjab after security agencies launched a massive manhunt to nab more than 40 militants sent by him in Kashmir. On September 12, security agencies intercepted a truck at Lakhanpur on the Punjab-Jammu border and seized four AK-56 and two AK-47 rifles, unearthing Nangroo’s plan. In June 2013, his another brother, Abbas Nangroo, a JeM commander, was killed during an encounter.

In September 2018, his one more brother Reyaz Nangroo, currently jailed, was arrested for “transporting three militants” from Jammu to Srinagar.