Police on Monday killed three top Hizbul Mujahideen militants in South Kashmir as part of its renewed offensive against militants that began with the onset of the new year, said Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbagh Singh.
“We killed three Hizbul Mujahideen militants today at Watchi in Shopian and all of them had a criminal record,’’ Singh said at a press conference in Srinagar.
The three militants were identified as Waseem Ahmed Wani, Adil Sheikh and Jehangir—all three hail from Shopian.
Singh said by killing the three militants, ‘their reign of dread’ has come to an end.
“The people of Shopian will have a sigh of relief as the three militants’ dread ran large in the area,’’ he said.
Singh said Wani had been active in militant activities since 2017 and had 19 FIRs against him. Wani and Sheikh were involved in the killing of four civilians and four policemen, the DGP said.
“They were involved in the killing of civilians Gowhar Ahmed Dar, Nadeem Manzooor, Ilyas Khan and Zahid Khan of Shopian and four policemen who were on guard duty,’’ he said.
He said Sheikh had decamped with seven AK 47 and a pistol on September 28, 2018 from the officials residence of former MLA Ajaz Ahmed Dar of the PDP at Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar.
He said Jehangir had also been active since 2017, and had participated in killings with the other two militants.
He said by killing the militants the police have avenged the killing of civilians and policemen.
Singh said 2020 has started on a good note for the police as a few days back they had killed senior Hizbul militant Hamad Khan and arrested another member of the terror group.
He said the police also busted a module of Jaish-e-Muhamamd militant by arresting five JeM men and recovering explosives, a suicide bombing vest and other arms.
Before that police had also arrested a militant, Jehangir, from Tral in Pulwama, he said.
Asked whether information provided by DSP Davinder Singh, who was arrested while transporting two militants and a lawyer to Jammu last week, had helped police plan operations against militants, Singh said some of the information provided by Davinder had helped in busting militant hideouts.
He said it is not proper for him to reveal any information provided by Davinder as the case has been transferred to NIA.
“Davinder’s case is with the NIA. Certain things have emerged but it’s not appropriate to talk about that as it may impact the investigations,’’ he said.
