Says Two Among Slain Militants In Mandoora Tral Had Joined This Year, Other In Aug Last Year
Firdous Qadri
Srinagar, Jan 2: Surrender of local militants shall be the mode of operation this year for police and other security establishments in J&K, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone, Vijay Kumar said on Friday.
Addressing reporters here, the top police officer of Kashmir said that three militants killed in Mandoora Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district were locals, and were associated with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
“Our modus operandi this year would be to focus on surrender. In Bandipora we had a militant surrender last week. A lot of information gets extracted due to it and others also get ready for surrender,” he told reporters. “Today also, we tried to make them surrender. We will try our best to make the locals militants surrender. In around 80 percent cases, we get to know the details of parents of the hiding militants and we try to contact them.”
Regarding the Mandoora encounter, he said that last night, Awantipora police received information that militants were hiding in the area. “Accordingly, Police, CRPF and Army laid cordon. Searches were carried and it got confirmed that militants are present there. As part of SOP, the militants were offered to surrender but they refused,” he said, adding, “They hurled grenade and opened fire which was retaliated, leading to a gunfight. Three local militants were killed and they belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.”
One among them, he said, had joined last year and two of them this year only. “You will remember that there was a grenade attack in Tral town in which a CRPF personnel and eight civilians were injured. The attack was carried by one among the slain, Arif Bashir of Mandoora.”
The two other slain militants were identified as Waris Hassan who had joined in August last year and another as Syed Asif Ul-Hag of Nooopora. The IGP said that an Ak-47 and four grenades besides a pistol was recovered from the slain militants.
Responding to a question, he said Pakistan tries to instigate youth in Kashmir through online modes.
“A youngster gets influenced through pressure group of local friends. We are planning to develop an online portal so as to interact with the youth and parents. We will get in contact with parents and try to inform them that their ward is showing such tendencies.”
Regarding Lawaypora ‘encounter’, he said that whatever families are saying has proved to be “wrong.”
“They said the trio did not know each other but what transpired through investigation is that all three of them boarded the same vehicle at 2:30 p.m. and de-boarded just before encounter site. In 2019, the policeman’s son (one among the slain at Lawaypora) was brought to SOG camp and counseled (against joining militant ranks). Meta data also shows that two from Pulwama had IP address from Pakistan. One of them was in contact through virtual number with two Pakistan militant commanders,” he said, adding, “ Whatever family is saying as proved to be wrong. The family should have stopped them. Does the father not know why his son was frequently called to SOG camp and what he was doing? Parents have a role. They must keep watch on their wards. Parental control is must and parents must discharge their duties.”
Regarding Wednesday’s IED attack on Jammu-Srinagar highway near Kulgam, he said troops try to take shelter in vacant buildings and they should sanitize them prior to going there. “Jash-e-Mohammad was involved in it. One militant, Mufti Altaf from Dooru, who is active from May 2000 and a (foreign militant) were involved. We will soon arrest or neutralize them”
To a question, he said that 5-10 percents are such militants killed in encounters whose complete biodata is not with the police.
