Two local Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants were killed in a night-long operation in south Kashmir’s Anantnag on Thursday.
“After the initial firing [on Wednesday evening], the terrorists portrayed as if they escaped from the cordon and didn’t open any fire the whole night. They were expecting us to withdraw the cordon. But the police were very confident about their presence. We strengthened the cordon, arranged lighting and senior officers camped at the encounter site,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar told The Hindu.
The militants, identified by the police as Adil Ahmad Bhat from Shithpora in Bijbehara and Zahid Ahmad Rather from Sirhama in Anantnag, were encircled around 6:05 p.m. on Wednesday at Kandipora village in Anantnag district.
The police said they fired indiscriminately on the joint search party. “Incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes,” the police said.
Only nearest family members would be allowed to participate in the last rites of the slain militants. “The security forces have increased the anti-terrorist operations in Kashmir in a bid to ensure that militancy sees no rise in its graph,” Mr. Kumar said.
