2 Al-Badr Militants Killed In Overnight Encounter In Kulgam

Srinagar: Two militants of Al-Badr outfit, aged 21 and 22 years, were killed in an overnight encounter with a joint team of police and army at Hasanpora area in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Monday. In last ten days, 13 militants were killed.
A police spokesperson in a statement to GNS said that based on a specific input regarding the presence of militants in village Hasanpora situated on the border between Kulgam and Anantnag, a joint cordon and search operation was launched on January 9 evening by Police and army’s 1st RR in the area.
“During the search operation, as the joint search party proceeded towards the suspected spot, the hiding (militants) fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated effectively, leading to an encounter.”
In the ensuing encounter, he said two militants of Al-Badr were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter. They have been identified as Imad Muzaffar Wani (21) of Arigam Pulwama and Abdul Rashid Thoker (20) of Hassanpora.
As per police records, both the killed militants were categorized, he said. “They were part of groups involved in several cases including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities,” he said, adding, “Besides, Imad Wani was involved in attack on police personnel Mushtaq Ahmad Wagay of Pulwama on 19 December 2021, in which the police personnel got seriously injured.”
Thoker, he said, before joining militant ranks was working as militant associate and “was also involved in attack on a civilian at Chitragam in which said civilian got injured.”
“Incriminating materials, arms & ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter,” he said. Sources said two pistols along with as many magazines were recovered from their possession. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation,” the spokesman said
Regarding the incident, the spokesman said a case under relevant sections of law has been registered in police station Bijbehara, Anantnag and investigation has been initiated. (GNS)