SRINAGAR: Three unidentified militants have been killed in an ongoing operation in Zoonimar area of downtown Srinagar after repeated efforts by the police, family members of the trapped militants to persuade them for surrender failed, police said today.
Police said that a gun fight broke out in Zoonimar- Gilkadal area of Srinagar’s old city after joint teams of police and Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) of CRPF cordoned of the area on the basis of a specific information about presence of militants.
As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), talking to reporters at the encounter site, Inspector General of Police Kashmir range said that three militants are trapped in house. “Two of them are locals.
We launched the operation in the night. For almost two-and a half hours, we tried to persuade the hiding militants to surrender. Repeated announcements to them by the locals of the area were also made. We also brought family members of two militants to the spot. They also appealed their children to surrender, but all efforts didn’t succeed,” the IGP said.
He said that two out of three militants are locals and one seems to be foreigner. A police official told KNO that as the hiding militants refused to surrender and opened fire at the forces triggering an encounter, three unidentified militants were killed.
This is the second encounter in Srinagar’s downtown in the recent past. Earlier, two militants including the divisional commander of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit Junaid Sehrai were killed. The authorities have snapped mobile internet services in entire Srinagar district as a “precautionary measure.”
A day before yesterday, addressing a joint press conference with the police, the Srinagar based army’s 15 Corps commander Lieutenant General B S Raju had said that over a 100 militants including top commanders of various outfits were killed. The army commander had stated that in the next few months, army will try to ensure normalcy in full across the Valley.
IGP Kashmir has already announced that from the next month, police will shift focus from South Kashmir to North Kashmir. Today’s encounter is believed to be a chance encounter as security officials have been maintaining that in Srinagar militancy was already wiped out but some were on the move, who get trapped after human and technical intelligence is used by the security agencies.