Srinagar

Authorities in Pulwama said the major towns in the district will be under curfew on Sunday. The decision was taken in wake of the serious law and order situation that followed the encounter at Saimoh village in Tral.

“We will be enforcing restrictions in all the major towns of the district on Sunday,” a senior civil administration officer said. “This is a must to help the situation improve.”

Officials said imposing any restrictions on Saturday is unwise. “People have to lay at the rest the people who were killed and it will take time,” one official said.

Soldiers taking picture of encounter site at Saimu Tral where militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat was killing along with his aide. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur

 

Interestingly when the crisis erupted in wake of the encounter, top civil and police administration was in Pulwama. Both Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police were in Pulwama in a high level review meeting. They were in a position to get the first hand information about the happenings in the district.

Saimoh, the village where the encounter started late Friday evening falls in Tral and in the territorial limits of Pulwama district. Two militants were killed and a couple of houses destroyed in the encounter that actually started late last night on basis of specific information. Informed sources told Kashmir Life that Sabzar Bhat, the militant commander, was hit in the initial attack and was injured. Though there were efforts to escape from the cordon, officials said it was a tighter one.

“There were three tier security cordons and the security grid ensured that no civilian gets into the cordoned belt,” one police official said. “This was a clean operation as far as non-intervention of civilians is concerned.”

However, there has been some stone pelting on the last tier of cordon. It was perhaps at this level where some casualty took place. Civilian government source said there are almost half a dozen people who were injured of whom one has lost his life.

S P Vaid, the DGP who broke the news last night said there were three militants in the cordon. By now, however, only two militants were reported killed. Their killing was confirmed by the police spokesman as well. It was immediately known where the third militants, believed to have been trapped in the cordon had gone.

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