Srinagar
The six militants who were killed in a gunfight with government forces at Batagund village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Sunday have been identified.
The slain militants are Mushtaq Ahmad Mir alias Hammad son of Ghulam Hassan Mir of Cheki-Cholan, Mohammad Abass Bhatt son of Abdul Jabbar Bhat of Cheki Mantribugh, Mohd Waseem Wagay alias Saifullah son of Abdul Hameed Wagay of Amshipora, Khalid Farooq Malik alias Rafi of Baghander Aliyalpora in Shopian district and Umar Majeed Ganaie alias Maaz son of Abdul Majeed Ganaie of Souch in Kulgam district.
Police spokesman said that the six slain militant, as per material evidence collected, is learnt to be a foreigner from Pakistan. He was involved in killing of civilians including the throat slitting video uploaded on social media recently.
It was a combined group of HM and LeT, as per records, police said.
Mir was affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba LeT and was operating as District commander for Shopian, while Bhatt, Wagay, Ganai and Malik were associated with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM).
Abass was known as District Commander of HM for Shopian and Ganaie was operating as HM’s district commander for Kulgam, police said. He was earlier convicted for a murder case FIR No. 82/2011 U/S 302 RPC PS Shopian and sentenced for 5 years. After his release in April 2016 he joined the militant ranks.
Ganai, whose photo was recently circulated on social media showing his presence near clock tower Lal chowk, had figured in the killings of several policemen and civilians in the area since 2016, police spokesman said. He had escaped from Batamaloo encounter this year.
Police said this militant group was involved in series of militancy-related incidents in Kashmir.
“Huge quantity of arms and ammunition including rifles were recovered from the site of encounter. Police has registered a case and initiated investigation in the matter,” police said.
Police also appealed civilians not to venture inside the encounter zone till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosives materials if any.