Three Jaish-e-Mohammed Terrorists Killed In Encounter In Kashmir's Tral Area

Three terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were killed in an encounter on Tuesday in the militancy-infested Tral area of south Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbagh Singh said here. He said two of the three militants killed could be foreign terrorists.

"Further details will be available once the operation ends," he said. The police chief said that this module of Jaish was involved in the killing of two brothers from the nomadic Gujjar (nomad) community in August this year.

Earlier in the month, three terrorists were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag, while militants killed a migrant labourer from Chhattisgarh and an apple trader from Punjab in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir where normal life remained affected for the 73rd consecutive day since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police managed to arrest the kingpin who spearheaded violent protests in Kashmir Valley after the August 5 decisions. The three terrorists, who were in their early 20s and had joined terror groups recently, were killed in an encounter with the police in Anantnag district, officials said.

The encounter broke out at Pazalpora area in Anantnag on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday on a specific intelligence provided by the district police. All the three militants have been neutralised, the officials said.

A police team, along with other security forces, launched a cordon-and-search operation in the area. It had a pinpointed information where the three militants were holed up, the officials said. It approached a house whose owner resisted saying that no one was present at the premises, but not agreeing to the landlord, the team carried on with their operation, they said.

The holed up militants first fired at around 02.30 AM after which the police retaliated effectively. In the encounter, the entire house came down due to the gunfight, they said, adding that the bodies have been handed over to the families for their burial.

The oldest among the three was Nasir Gulzar Chadroo alias Abu Hannan, a resident of Bijbehara in Anantnag district, who had joined the banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror outfit in September last year. The other two were identified as Zahid Ahmad Lone and Aaqib Ahmad Hajam.

While Lone, also a resident of Bijbehara, had joined the terror outfit in July, Hajam, a resident of Redhwani in Kulgam district of south Kashmir, had joined militancy in April. All the three were in their early 20’s.