SRINAGAR: Fourteen militants have been killed since January 1 out of which seven were foreign nationals, including the one killed at the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Vijay Kumar said on Thursday.
While interacting with media in Kulgam after the killing of Pakistani militant Babar Bhai linked with proscribed outfit Jaish-e-Mohmmad, news agency IANS quoted the IG Kashmir as having said the owner and his family with whom the slain militant was hiding, had deliberately misled the search team by saying that no militant was hiding in their house which led to collateral damage. Therefore, action under the law will be taken against them.
Police said based on specific input regarding the presence of a militant in the Pariwan area of Kulgam, a joint cordon and search operation was launched Wednesday evening by the police and Army (34RR).
During the search operation, as the joint search party approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorist fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated leading to a gunfight.
However, while evacuating the civilians from the encounter site to safer places, one police personnel, three army soldiers and two civilians got injured.
“All the injured were immediately shifted to the hospital for treatment. However, police personnel SgCt Rohit Chibb succumbed to his injuries and attained martyrdom. The condition of other injured, including two civilians who had sustained minor injuries is stated to be stable,” police said.
In the ensuing encounter, one top Pakistani JeM terrorist Babar Bhai was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of encounter.
“As per police records, the slain militant was a categorised militant active since year 2018 in the areas of Shopian-Kulgam and its adjoining areas. He was wanted by law in several crime cases,” police said.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition, including one AK-47 rifle, one pistol and two grenades were also recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.
Police have registered a case and an investigation has been initiated.
