6 militants, jawan, civilian killed in Valley

Six militants were killed on Thursday in encounters with security forces in Shopian and Pulwama districts of Jammu and Kashmir while a civilian and a soldier also lost their lives, police said.

While three Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists, a civilian and a soldier were killed in the encounter in Pulwama, three militants were eliminated during a gun battle with security forces in Handew village of the Shopian district, a police spokesman said.

“The injured Army jawan Rohit Kumar Yadav has succumbed at the hospital and attained martyrdom,” said the official.

The spokesman identified the slain militants as Naseer Pandith of Kareemabad Pulwama, Umar Mir of Shopian and Khalid from Pakistan. They were allegedly affiliated with proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen.

“Naseer Pandith had a long history of terror crime records before joining terrorist organization and several terror crime cases were registered against him for planning and executing terror attacks in the area after joining proscribed terror outfit JeM. He was also involved in the killing of a policeman Mohammad Yaqoob Shah of Pulwama in 2018 on the eve of Eid,” the spokesman said.

“On a credible input, a cordon and search operation was launched this morning by police and security forces at Delipora area in district Pulwama,” the official said.

The militants were reportedly hiding in a house when around midnight the area was cordoned off and they were asked to surrender. “However, the militants chose to fire, which was retaliated by our forces. In this initial exchange of fire, a jawan and a civilian were killed and two jawans and a civilian were injured,” the official said.

“As per police records, Yawar Dar was involved in planning and executing series of terror attacks in the area and many other civilian atrocities. He was involved in the terror attack on Zainpora Police Guard last year in which four policemen were martyred,” he said.