A Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was killed in an overnight gunfight in South Kashmir’s Pulwama on Wednesday when an encounter broke out between terrorists and security forces. On the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, a joint team of J-K Police, Army and paramilitary forces cordoned off Usgampathri village in Pulwama’s Rajpora after inputs about the presence of militants there.
The police said a terrorist was killed in the gunfight. “PulwamaEncounterUpdate: 01 unidentified terrorist killed. Operation going on. Further details shall follow,” tweeted J-K Police.
Police sources identified the terrorist as Feroz Ahmad Dar, a resident of Shopian. Sources said Dar was associated with Hizbul Mujahideen and had joined militant ranks four years ago in 2017.
Earlier, reports said that a joint team of police and Army launched a nocturnal cordon and search operation in the area. As the joint team of forces approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon the forces, triggering off a gunfight.
The encounter in Pulwama comes hours after the security forces killed a top terrorist of the Lashkar e Taiba in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
According to security officials, the Pakistani terrorist was first detected in August this year. Agency reports citing police officials said that the terrorist was a part of Pakistan’s plot to revive terrorism in the Rajouri-Poonch area.
“This is the eighth terrorist to be eliminated this year. Recently, Haji Arif, a dreaded terrorist guide, was also eliminated on the LoC in the Rajouri sector,” a defence spokesperson said on Tuesday, news agency PTI quoted.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Centre said that the number of terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a significant decline since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The security forces have stepped up vigil against terror elements in the Valley in light of the civilian killings and more recently, in light of the attack on the Jammu Kashmir Police Force convoy, which killed three police personnel on Monday.
