by Saima Bhat
SRINAGAR: Two Hizb ul-Mujahideen militants and a civilian were killed in a gunfight that started during wee hours of Monday morning in Drubgam village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. At least twenty-two civilians and two soldiers were also injured in the gun battle.
The slain militants were identified as Sameer Ahmad Bhat alias Tiger of Drubgam and he was in the category of A++ militant. The second militant was identified as Auqib Ahmad Khan of Rajpora.
The slain civilian was identified as Shahid Ahmad Dar, son of Mohammad Ashraf Dar, of Arihal village in Pulwama. He was hit by bullets during clashes near the site of gunfight after which he was shifted to District Hospital Pulwama where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Medical Superintendent Pulwama hospital, Abdul Rashid Parra said that the slain youth had received serious firearm injury at multiple places. “He must have been in the age group from 18 to 22.”
Reportedly Shahid was working as a labour. He had studied up to higher secondary level and dropped out two and half years before. “He was a stone pelter and had five FIR’s registered against him in police station Pulwama,” a police source claimed. Non-governmental sources said Shahid was the only son of his parents. He is survived by his sister beside father and mother.
DH Pulwama also received other 22 injured patients out of which 12 were referred to Srinagar for specialised treatments, who had pellet and bullet injuries. “All of them were stable when we referred them but they needed specialised surgical interventions,” the doctor said.
Dr Parra also added that his hospital made a public announcement when they were running short of O negative blood group. “I was overwhelmed with the local youth who reached a hospital that time. We received at least 22 pints of O negative blood group.”
Meanwhile, a major and a soldier of 44 RR were also injured in the initial exchange of fire with the militants. The injured major had a bullet injury on his left arm and the soldier had a bullet wound on his head. Both were shifted to 92 base military hospitals in Badami Bagh Srinagar where, reports said, both are said to be stable.
In the encounter, two houses are said to be partially damaged. They belonged to two brothers: Shabir Ahmad and Khursheed Ahmad, both residents of Drubgam, Baba Mohalla. Shabir Ahmad is a driver by profession. “The houses were small and we had already besieged them from all the sides. We did not need to use any high ended ammunition,” said an officer from the encounter site.
Reportedly massive clashes had erupted after youth took to streets to help the besieged militants escape from the gunfight site.
The police and paramilitary forces responded by firing live ammunition, pellets and tear gas shells to chase away the stone-throwing protesters.
The police sources added that the search operation was started at 8.15 am by a joint party of 44RR, 182/183 CRPF along with Pulwama Police, but the contact was established at around 10 am resulting in an encounter which ended at 2 pm. The bodies were retrieved later and by 3.30 pm the operation was completely over.
The Police spokesperson added, one of the militants, Sameer was earlier recruited as an OGW by the banned outfit HM after passing Class 8th since he had discontinued his education due to lack of interest in studies. He was involved in several stone pelting incidents prior to his militant activities. He was active in the area since May 2016 and had remained part of several cases of civilian atrocities in the area.
Tiger, according to police, was involved in the firing incident on the residential house of Ex MLA Syed Bashir Ahmad in Sheikhard and in a grenade attack on the Naka Party at Hawal, Pulwama. Besides his involvement was established in the kidnapping and firing of two civilians from Qasbayar in which one civilian Bashir Ahmad Dar had died instantly while another Altaf Ahmad Dar was seriously injured.
Last year he had indiscriminately fired upon a patrolling party of 44 RR besides he had also entered into the residential houses of civilians in South Kashmir and forced them to issue video statements against the government and security agencies. Several FIRs pertaining to these incidents had been registered in Police Station Rajpora. Sameer was said to be a close confidant of HM commander Riyaz Naikoo and both had been spotted together in a video released recently on social media.
Sameer, according to local news-gatherer, was son of Muhammad Maqbool and had a downtrodden family background. He is survived by a labourer father, mother, a sixth standard sister and a minor brother. His family knew of his militancy joining through social media, it said.
“His friends and family members say that Sameer had a great motivational power,” the news report said. “He according to his family persuaded two of his relatives Manzoor Ahmed Baba and Waseem Ganaie both from Drabgam village to joint Fidayeen Squad of Jaish-e-Muhammad, though he was himself associated with Hizbul Mujhadeen. Baba was killed in Lehthpora Fidayeen attack while Waseem lost his life in a gunfight with government forces at Kandi Aglar.”
The other militant, according to police, was Aqib Mushtaq Khan who was active since July 2017. He also had plotted several attacks on the security establishments in South Kashmir along with Sameer Tiger and was closely associated with him after joining the militant ranks.
Bodies of both the slain militants were retrieved from the site of encounter and handed over to the respective families. Moreover, 2 AK 47 rifles and other incriminating material have also been seized.
Police said the civilian identified as Shahid Ahmad Dar, aged 25, son of Mohd Ashraf Dar resident of Arihal Pulwama died in cross firing while some others were injured who are all stated to be stable. They said they have registered a case and investigation is on.
Meanwhile, as the news spread about the encounter, the train services, as well as the internet services, were suspended in south Kashmir as a precautionary measure. However, trains continued to chug on Srinagar-Budgam in central Kashmir to Baramulla in north Kashmir as per schedule. There was an instant strike in the entire belt.
https://www.facebook.com/KashmirLife/videos/1679365005446225/
The joint resistance leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik have called for a complete shutdown on Tuesday against the killing of civilians and two militants in Drabgam village. In a statement, JRL has strongly condemned the killing of Shahid Ashraf Dar and two militants Sameer Ahmad and Aqib Wani during an encounter.
Hizb ul-Mujahideen leaders based in PaK has paid tributes to the slain militants.
“By choking all means of peaceful expression #Kashmirs young generation is being pushed to the wall,” Mirwaiz wrote on Twitter. “The heavily armed state machinery by using immense lethal force against our vulnerable youth is adding fuel to the fire and making the situation more fragile.”
