Srinagar: Operational Chief Commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Riyaz Naikoo and his associate were killed in a gunfight with a joint team of government forces at Beighpora area in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, officials said on Wednesday.
Reports quoting IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said Naikoo and his associate Adil were killed in the gunfight at Beighpora, the home town of the Hizb commander.
The 35-year-old Naikoo had joined militant ranks in 2010 in the backdrop of unrest triggered by the killing of teenager Tufail Matoo allegedly due to a teargas shell at Rajouri Kadal Srinagar. Naikoo, a former mathematics teacher at a private school, was one of the close aides of the popular Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani who was killed in Bumdoora village in Kokernag area of South Kashmir on 8 July 2016.
Naikoo who as per security establishment was working under code name Mohammad Bin Qasim become the operational chief commander of the Hizb after successor of Burhan Wani, Mohammad Yasin Itoo alias Mehmood Ghaznavi, was killed along with two of his associates in an 18-hour-long gunfight with joint team of police, army and CRPF at Awnira, Zainapora village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district in August 2017. Naikoo, who figured in the list of 12 most militants issued by the army in 2017 as also in the hit-list of 17 top militants issued by intelligence agencies in 2018, carried Rs 12 lakh on head being A++ category militant.
