Srinagar district cannot be militancy-free for “various reasons”, Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar, said on Friday.
“Time and again I have been saying that any district where an encounter does not take place does not mean militants are not present there. The militants keep on changing their shelter and hideouts. We keep on generating information and kill them accordingly,” he said, as per news agency GNS.
Kumar was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a wreath-laying ceremony for a CRPF trooper who was killed in a gunfight with militants in Malbagh area of Srinagar last night.
“Srinagar is such a city where militants keep coming for medical treatment, raising funds, meetings etc. Srinagar cannot be militancy-free,” he said.
Giving details on the Malbagh gunfight, Kumar said that last evening Srinagar police received an input that two militants were hiding there.
“CRPF and Police went there. A cordon-and-search-operation was started. Militants fired at the joint party in which our jawan (CRPF trooper) was injured. Despite being injured, he continued to move forward bravely and killed the militant,” the IGP said.
He identified the slain militant as Zahid Daas, who he said was the chief of JKIS militant outfit for Anantnag.
“There were five militants under him. His associate Yawar and another one were killed in Waghama Bijbhera (on June 30). In all, three of them have been killed already and two are left now,” he said.
Daas was among the wanted besides twelve militant commanders who the IGP last week said were on the “prime target list” of the police and other forces.
He said that in November 2019, Daas killed a PSO and decamped with his gun. “In April, he killed a CRPF (trooper) with a pistol in Goriwan and was involved in June 26 incident at Bijbehara in which a CRPF trooper and a 6-year-old boy were killed,” Kumar said, adding, “His killing is a big success for police and the CRPF.”