Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday said Imtiyaz Ahmed Shah, chief of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH)—an Al Qaeda affiliate, has been killed in an encounter with security forces at Tral in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.
Inspector General of Police (IGP)-Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar, confirmed to a local news agency Kashmir News Observer that Shah has been killed.
Kumar congratulated the police, the CRPF and the Rashtriya Rifles of the Army who took part in the operation. The killing of the five militants, including the AGuH chief, is seen as a major blow to the militancy in Kashmir, especially south Kashmir.
Initially, one militant was killed when the encounter started early morning. Later, another militant was also killed in the encounter taking the toll two.
Tral encounter is the second firefight between militants and security forces in the past 24 hours in south Kashmir. In the first encounter, security forces had killed five militants at Jan Mohalla in Shopian.
Initially, three militants were killed and later, another two who had moved into a nearby mosque were also killed, sources said.
Senior police officers from the Army and the police, including the IGP, had rushed to Shopian on Thursday as the operation against the militants was launched.
The encounter started after security forces received information about the presence of militants in the area.
As the security forces zeroed in on the safe house of militants, they came under fire. In the ensuing encounter, five militants were killed following several hours of firefight and pause after two militants moved into a mosque, the sources said.
The security forces have intensified operations against the militants in south Kashmir in view of the impending Amarnath Yatra that will commence on June 28. Kumar will hold a press briefing later during which he will be divulging more details about the operations carried out in Pulwama and Shopian.
