Press Release
July 14: Acting on a specific information generated by Srinagar Police about presence of militants in New colony Hospital road area of Pulwama, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, Army (55RR) and CRPF in the said area.
During the search operation, the civilians were evacuated to safer places & as the presence of militants got ascertained they were given an opportunity to surrender, however they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
Due to darkness the operation was suspended, while the cordon remained intact. Taking advantage of darkness militants tried to escape, however they couldn’t. In the wee hours, repeated announcements were again made to hiding militants to surrender, but the militants again fired on joint search party and the fire was retaliated.
In the ensuing encounter, three militants of proscribed militant outfit LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter. They have been identified as LeT commander Aijaz @Abu Huraira resident of Pakistan, Javeed Ahmad Rather son of Abdul Ganie Rather resident of Tahab Pulwama and Shahnawaz Nazir Ganie son of Nazir Ahmad Ganie resident of Samboora Awantipora.
As per police records, all the killed militants were part of group involved in various crimes regarding which several militancy crime cases stands registered against them. The killed foreign militant Aijaz had a history of militancy crime cases. He was also instrumental in recruiting innocent youth into terror folds besides, planning and executing several militant attacks in the area including attacks on Police and security establishments.
Incriminating materials arms and ammunition including 2 AK rifles and a pistol were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes.
IGP Kashmir congratulated Police & security forces for conducting successful operation without any collateral damage.
In this connection police has registered a case under relevant sections of law and investigation has been initiated.
People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any.
