Srinagar : Manan Bashir Wani, the scholar turned top militant commander of Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen and his associate Ashiq Hussain Zargar were on Thursday morning killed during an encounter in Shatgund village in Handwara area of North Kashmir’s frontier district Kupwara. Thousands of people attended the funeral prayers of Manan Wani in his native village Tikipora in Loab area of Kupwara district.
For Manan, it was a nine months of complete stint as not only just a militant but a militant ideologue who through his writings would influence youth to join “armed rebellion.” .The second militant killed in the gunfight was identified as Ashiq Hussain Zargar. Soon after the news of the encounter broke, violent clashes erupted in parts of Kupwara and Handwara. Wani, 27, was a Ph.D scholar at Aligarh Muslim University before he joined the militant ranks of the Hizbul Mujahideen in January 2018. The exchange of fire continued till 11 A.M with a lull at around 9 am, when the police initiated search operations at the encounter site. However, search operations were suspended but militants resumed firing. The police have recovered arms and ammunitions of the slain militants.
A police official said that acting on a tip off, police and the army launched cordon in village Shatgund, Handwara at 2 A.M in the nid night after specific inputs about the presence of militants. “Initially there was an exchange of fire that got halted till the dawn. With the first light, the firing again started in which two militants were killed,” he said. Talking to reporters, IGP Kashmir S P Pani said that two militants were killed in Handwara encounter and they have been identified as Manan Bashir Wani and Ashiq Hussain and both were associated with Hizbul Mujahideen. “N collateral damage was done in the operation,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people on Thursday participated in the last rites of scholar-turned-militant Manan Wani at his native Tekipora village of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Reports said that over 20000 people took part in the funeral prayers of Wani. “It looked as if the entire population of Lolab valley had assembled in Tikipora the ancestral village of Manan Wani,” said an eye witness.
Meanwhile reports said students of Kashmir University held a protest against the killing of a PhD scholar-turned-militant, Manan Wani. Eye witness said the students assembled in the campus premises and staged protest against his killing. The protesting students chanted pro freedom slogan and also held the funeral prayers in absentia for the slain militant commander , which was attended by scores of students.
