Militant Zakir Musa Killed in Encounter with Security Forces in J&K’s Tral
Militant commander, Zakir Rashid Bhat, popularly known as Zakir Musa, was killed after a gunfight broke out between militants and security forces at Dadsara village in the Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district late Thursday evening. Joint forces of army’s 42 RR, SOG and CRPF, working on a special intelligence, had trapped him near his home in the Tral area of south Kashmir.
J&K police tweeted: “In a major success against terrorism in South Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir Police & Security forces eliminated Zakir Rashid Bhat Zakir Musa Chief Commander and Founder of Ansar Gazwatul Hind; only surviving terrorist of erstwhile Burhan group. Active from six years he was involved in a number of terrorist activities. The terrorist was carrying rocket, grenade launchers, projectiles, huge ammunition and warlike stores.”
Curfew has been imposed in parts of Kashmir in wake of Musa’s killing. Educational institutions have also been closed in places in Kashmir as a precautionary measure and the internet was also shutdown, PTI reported.
On Thursday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police announced restrictions in some areas of Pulwama, Awantipora, Srinagar, Anantnag and Budgam as a precautionary measure.
Spontaneous protests had broken out in Shopian, Pulwama, Awantipora and downtown Srinagar, with people raising slogans in favour of Musa. Zakir Musa’s body was retrieved at 6am Friday.
Musa was a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the militant group he joined in 2013 while pursuing engineering from a college in Punjab.
He had succeeded commander Burhan Wani after he was killed in July 2016. Later, he founded his own group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of Al-Qaida.