A top commmander of the Jaish-e-Muhammad was among the threemilitants slain in a gunfight with the security forces in southern Pulwamadistrict, officials said.
On a credible input, a cordon & search operation waslaunched today morning by police and security forces at Dalipora area inDistrict Pulwama, said a police spokesman.
As the Police & security forces were evacuatingcivilians from the neighbourhood area around the target house, the hidingmilitants fired indiscriminately, he said.
“In the process one Army Jawan Sepoy Sandeep attainedmartyrdom and one civilian Rayees Dar also lost his life,” said the spokesman.
After the security forces retaliated, three militants werekilled in the ensuing encounter and their bodies were retrieved from the siteof encounter.
They were identified as Naseer Pandith of KareemabadPulwama, Umar Mir of Shopian and from the incriminating material recovered fromthe site of encounter, one militant has been identified as a Pakistani namelyKhalid.
According to the police records, the slain were affiliatedwith proscribed outfit JeM. “They were wanted by law for their complicity in aseries of crimes including attack on security establishments and civilianatrocities,” he said.
As per police records, Naseer Pandith was involved in thekilling of a policeman Mohammad Yaqoob Shah of Pulwama in 2018 on the eve ofEid. He was also involved in some weapon snatching incidents reported from thearea besides several cases were registered against him for his criminalactivities including case FIR No 30/15 & 277/14 under NDPS Act and case FIRNo 25/16 pertaining to forgery, said the spokesman.
Similarly, Khalid who was operating as commander of JeM wasinvolved in several attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocitiesin the area, he said.
Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition wasrecovered from the site of encounter. All these materials have been taken inthe case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity inother cases.