Srinagar: Security forces on Sunday achieved a major success when they gunned down five terrorists including top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen in a fierce encounter in Kashmir’s Shopian district.
According to reports, the slain terrorists have been identified as Saddam Paddar — a top Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, Tawseef Sheikh, Molvi Bilal, Adil Ahmad and Muhammad Rafi Bhat — the missing Kashmir University assistant professor, who according to police had joined the terror outfit.
A Kashmir University assistant professor Muhammad Rafi Bhat, who had recently joined hands with the Hizbul terror group was also neutralised in the encounter, said sources.
Muhammad Rafi Bhat, an assistant professor in the sociology department of Kashmir University went missing on Friday afternoon. He was from Chunduna village in Ganderbal district.
Informed sources said that the police had taken Bhat’s mother, wife and brother to Badigam village in Shopian district to persuade Bhat to surrender but the appeal of the family members fell on deaf ears and he too was eliminated along with other terrorists.
A senior police official said that the security forces including Rashtriya Rifles, SOG of the state police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had surrounded Badigam village following a tip-off about the presence of some terrorists in the area, on early Sunday morning.
As the security forces closed in, the hiding terrorists started firing in which two security men including a soldier of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and a member of the special operations group (SOG) of state police were critically injured.
In the ensuing fierce encounter all the terrorists were neutralised. Large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from the encounter site.
The injured soldiers were shifted to hospital where their condition is stated to be stable.
Meanwhile, the authorities have suspended mobile internet services across south Kashmir.