Four terrorists gunned down in last 16 hours in South Kashmir, huge cache of arms seized

SRINAGAR: In two separate encounters in south Kashmir’s Kulgam and Pulwama districts in the past 16 hours, the security forces have killed at least four terrorists and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including one M4 gun. 

Earlier in a late-night encounter, which started in the Chingam area of Kulgam, the security forces along with J&K Police killed two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists and recovered a sophisticated weapon like an M4 gun. The encounter concluded at 8 am this morning. 

DGP Dilbag Singh said, “An operation launched last evening on specific police input at Chingam-Kulgam concluded this morning with the elimination of a local and a Pakistani terrorist. The area under cordon included two local mosques as well. The ops party took full care and conducted a clean operation without any collateral damage. The slain terrorists belong to the JeM outfit. One MO 4 US rifle and one AK along with other warlike material have been recovered.” 

The J&K police issued a press release in which it said, “ In the ensuing encounter, 02 hardcore terrorists were killed and their bodies have been retrieved from the site of encounter.  They have been identified as Tariq Ahmad Mir, son of Abdul Rahman Mir, resident of Zangalpora Divsar Kulgam and a Pakistani national identified as Sameer Bhai @Usman resident of Punjab Pakistan (‘A’ category terrorist), both affiliated with proscribed terror outfit JeM.”

At around 3.30 pm, another encounter broke in Pulwama district. Based on the inputs about the presence of terrorists in Dadura village of Pulwama, a cordon and search operation was launched. It remained a brief encounter and in only one hour, two more terrorists were killed and 2 AK rifles along with other arms and ammunition was recovered from the spot, the J&K Police claimed. 

Kashmir Zone Police tweeted, “ Encounter has started at #Dadoora area of #Pulwama. Police and security forces are on the job. later after an hour, Kashmir police update with the details saying that two terrorists got killed in encounter and arms and ammunition was recovered.”

However, the identity and the group affiliation of the terrorists killed in the Pulwama encounter is being ascertained.