[Daily Excelsior]3 LeT militants killed, ASI martyred

We lost brave cop: DGP

Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Aug 30: Three militants were killed and an Assistant Sub Inspector of police was martyred in an overnight gun battle at Pantha Chowk area on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Vijay Kumar told Excelsior that the operation was launched after a weapon snatching bid was foiled by police and CRPF at Pantha Chowk at 8 pm yesterday.
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“The attempt was foiled by the alert naka party and militants managed to flee from the spot. However, they were followed by police and CRPF and the whole area was completely cordoned off with the help of additional reinforcement including 20 RR of Army”, Kumar said.
He said that as the presence of the militants was ascertained in the cordoned area the hiding militants were given opportunity to surrender but they fired indiscriminately upon the search party. “In the meantime, their respective families were also called and repeated surrender appeals were made to them through their family members. However, they refused to surrender and instead fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter”, he said.

A police officer ASI Babu Ram was critically injured in the initial gun battle. He was evacuated to nearby hospital for the treatment of his injuries where he succumbed.
Three militants were killed in the encounter and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter. They have been identified as Saqib Bashir Khanday, Umar Tariq Bhat and Zubair Ahmad Shiekh, all residents of Drangbal Pampore. They were affiliated with proscribed LeT.
As per police records, they were part of groups involved in planning and executing several attacks in the area. Besides weapon snatching bid at J&K Bank Pampore, Saqib Bashir was also involved in motivating and radicalizing the youth of the area to join militancy.
Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe his complicity in other terror crimes.
“Keeping in view the prevailing pandemic due to COVID-19 and to ensure the safety of people from inherent risk of contracting the infection, the dead bodies of the killed terrorists shall be sent to Handwara for burial purposes after completion of all medico-legal formalities. The nearest family members of the killed terrorists shall be allowed to participate in the last rites at Handwara”, police said.
Director General of Police, Dilbagh Singh said that police lost its brave, well-trained and experienced counter insurgency cop who had taken part in so many successful anti-militancy operations.
Talking to reporters in Srinagar on the sidelines of wreath laying ceremony of Babu Ram, the DGP said that the ASI was a brave cop, who was well trained and had been part of anti-militancy operations since long.
He said one AK-47 and pistols were recovered from the slain militants.