Two top militants from Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit were killed and four army soldiers injured in a nocturnal gunfight in Chattergam area of Nowgam on the outskirts of Srinagar on Friday, police said.
A police official said following a “specific input” aboutpresence of militants, the police and other forces laid a siege around aresidential house in Sutsoo-Kalan area of Chattergam during the night.
After the forces fired some “warning shots”, the hidingmilitants opened fire, triggering a fierce firefight at around 3am, theofficial said.
“Amid exchange of firing, the forces launched the finalassault in the wee hours and succeeded in killing two militants,” he said,adding that it was a “very clean operation”.
Both the slain militants hailed from Pakistan and wereassociated with Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit, the police official said.
A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, claimedthat the slain militants were part of JeM’s “sniping attack squad” and “fromtheir possession, a US-made M4-carbine with a night-vision device fitted atopit was recovered from the encounter spot”.
“Apart from some documents, an ‘insas’ weapon was alsorecovered from the duo, which was involved in sniping attacks in southernKashmir areas,” the officer said.
“As part of the procedure, the DNA samples of both theforeign militants have been preserved and the weapon (M4 carbine) will be sentfor forensic testing to supplement the investigations,” he said.
Four soldiers were injured in the gunfight but all of themare stable at army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar, the officer said.
This is the second time that a US-made M4 carbine gun hasbeen recovered from the Jaish militants, according to officials.
On October 30 last year, a US-made carbine was recoveredfrom the possession of slain Jaish commander Usman, the nephew of JeM chiefMoulana Masood Azhar, from the encounter spot in southern Tral area. A localmilitant Showkat Ahmed was killed along with Usman.
“The M4 carbine was later sent to forensic laboratory to ascertainwhether it was used for sniping attacks on forces in Kashmir,” an officialsaid.
Last year, three forces personnel—an army soldier, asahastra seema bal (SSB) soldier and a central industrial security force (CISF)man—were killed in what forces termed a “standoff or sniping attacks”. Thekillings sent the security agencies into a tizzy, even as the preliminaryinvestigations revealed that Jaish militants were using US-made M4 carbine gunfor sniping attacks on forces during night.
Meanwhile, the police issued an advisory asking people ofNowgam and its adjoining areas to stay away from the encounter site until it iscleared of possible left-over explosive materials.
POLICE STATEMENT
In a statement, a police spokesman said: “Based on credibleinputs about the presence of militants in Sutsoo Kalan area of Nowgam in theoutskirts of district Srinagar, a cordon-and-search operation was launched thismorning by the police and security forces”.
“As the searches were going on, the search party was fired uponby the hiding militants. The fire was retaliated, leading to an encounter inwhich two militants were killed. Their bodies were retrieved,” the statementread. “From the incriminating material recovered at the site of encounter, itis understood that both the killed militants are Pakistani nationals identifiedas Ali and Idrees”.
“As per the police records, both the killed militants wereaffiliated with proscribed outfit JeM and were wanted by law for theircomplicity in a series of crimes including attacks on security establishmentsand civilian atrocities. They were involved in conspiring and executing manymilitant attacks in the area. Several crime cases were registered against boththe militants,” the statement read.
“Arms and ammunition including rifles were recovered fromthe site of encounter. All the incriminating materials including rifles andammunition have been taken in the case records for further investigation and toprobe their complicity in other cases. Police have registered a case in thisregard,” the statement read.
“Citizens are requested not to venture inside the encounterzone since such an area can prove dangerous due to stray explosive materials.People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completelysanitised and cleared of all the explosives materials if any,” the statementread.