A Hizb ul Mujahideen rebel was killed after a gunfight raged in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwom on Saturday. The gunfight raged in Veerbagh-Gundepur village of the district– which has seen a renewed anti-India insurgency in the recent years– after government forces cordoned off the village and launched a search operation. Rebels and forces exchanged gunshots as the later marched in to the village, officials said. A top police official said that one of the rebel’s was killed in the initial exchange of fire. “Raqib Bashir, who is a resident of Zoodur in the district and was associated with the Hizb, has been killed,” he said. Government forces, including army and police’s counter insurgency unit and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, conducted searches in the village. Forces suspected presence of two rebels in the village. However, the senior police officer said that the gunfight has ended, but search operation continued till hours later. During the encounter, hundreds of local residents attempted to give safe passage to the trapped militant by resorting to heavy stone pelting on government forces, officials said. Soon after the killing, massive protests broke out at Zoodur, Piglin and Veerbagh during which locals clashed with government forces.
After completing legal formalities, police handed over the body of the slain to his family. Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner in Pulwom in an order issued today declared the imposition of section 144 (restriction on the movement of civilians) within the 2.5 kilometers radius of encounter sites in the district. The officer in his order has written in order: “…It has been made to appear to me that during encounters the people of surrounding areas do receive bullet injuries as a result of their free movement in and around the encounter places… In order to save the precious lives of the civilians it is expedient to impose restrictions on their movement in and around the encounter places.” He however said that the order shall not be applicable on the ambulances, medicos and paramedical staff. He added that the order shall remain force for two months.
A special police officer for a day, Raqib the Hizb ul Mujahideen fighter was a resident of Zoodur village of the southern Pulwom district. Police say the slain joined as a special police officer last year, but went missing a day after he joined. He didn’t decamp with weapons. Raqib had joined the Hizb in November last year. Before joining the police he worked as a security guard in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. The police said they recovered a hand grenade and a pistol from the gunfight site.
From KashmirDispatch: http://wp.me/p6XoZF-ABi
