2 terrorists responsible for killing CRPF trooper, 5-yr-old shot dead in J-K encounter

Two terrorists who killed a five-year-old and Central Reserve Police Force trooper last week have been killed in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag district’s Bijbehara area, Jammu and Kashmir police said on Tuesday.

The forces are on the lookout for the third terrorist involved in the gunbattle in Waghama village of Bijbehara.

An INSAS rifle and pistol were recovered from the encounter site.

The terrorists shot dead in today’s gunfight had opened fire at a road opening party of CRPF’s 90 Battalion near the Padshahi Bagh bridge in Bijbehara area on Friday injuring a CRPF personnel and a 5-year-old boy in the attack. Both of them succumbed to their injuries in the hospital, an official said.

Tuesday’s encounter comes a day after one Hizbul Mujahideen and two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were gunned down in the Khulchohar area of Anantnag.

One of the terrorists killed in the encounter was identified as Masood Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Doda, the region’s last surviving so-called commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.

Dilbag Singh, Jammu and Kashmir’s police chief, called his killing “a big success” and pronounced the Union territory’s Doda district “totally militancy free”

The terrorists were buried away from their native places in Baramulla, Handwara, and Ganderbal due to Covid-19 restrictions over the last two months.

Security forces have stepped up operations and killed more than 100 terrorists this year. A total of 46 terrorists have been killed in June, the highest in a month since 39 were killed in November 2018. The 46 include commanders of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.