Srinagar: Hizbul-ul-Mujahideen’s top commander Mohammad Yasin Yatoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi has been confirmed dead. A resident of Chadoora in Budgam district, Yatoo was one among the three militants killed with government forces in the overnight gunfight at Zainapora area in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Sources said earlier the police presumed that Adil Malik along with Umar Majeed of Kulgam and Irfan-ul-haq of Maldara Zainapora were killed at Awneera in Zainapora Shopian but later police confirmed it to be Yatoo alias Mehmood Ghaznavi. Yatoo first joined militancy in 1996. He returned to Kashmir from across the LoC in 2000 and was later arrested to be released after few years, they said. In 2010 Yatoo was booked under Public Safety Act and after he was released, he joined Hizb again and rose to rank of the outfit’s operational commander for Kashmir, they said.
The gunfight also left two soldiers dead and three others, one of them a Captain, injured who are presently recuperating at Badamaibagh military hospital. Meanwhile, sources said that one militant, who rose from debris of the house and fired at government forces managed to escape in the melee that followed the firing. Meanwhile the authorities have directed telecom authorities to snap mobile Internet services in Budgam district and areas of Srinagar adjoining the central Kashmir district.
