This news was confirmed by local police. The gunfight had erupted at Chawalgam Village in Kulgam on Thursday evening when a joint team of police, 18 battalions of CRPF, and Army’s 9 Rashtriya Rifles launched a cordon and search operation in the area following input regarding the presence of terrorists. They said in the initial gunfight one ultra was killed.
#Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition recovered. Search going on. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice,” a police tweet said. Police later identified one of the slain as District Commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Shiraz Molvi who was active since 2016. “Killed Militants identified as District commander of HM Shiraz Molvi & Yawar Bhat. Shiraz was active since 2016 & was involved in #recruiting innocent youth into terror ranks & several civilian killings, A big success for us,” a police Tweet said while quoting the Inspector General of Police.
Meanwhile, the militant killed in an encounter in Srinagar’s Bemina locality on Thursday evening has been identified by police as a member of Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind who was assigned to carry a Fidayeen attack. “Terrorist killed in #Srinagar #Encounter identified as Aamir Riyaz of Khrew #Pulwama affiliated with proscribed terror outfit Mujahideen Gazwatul Hind. He was relative of one of the accused of #LethporaTerrorAttack and was assigned to carry out fidayeen attack, ” a police tweet said while quoting the Inspector General of Police.
On February 14, 2019, a local suicide bomber of Jaish-e-Mohammad rammed his explosive-laden car into a CRPF bus at Lethpora Pulwama leaving 40 personnel of the force dead. The attack was followed by Balakote airstrikes.
The Pulwama attack has been criticized as being an intelligence failure though GOI denies this. A CRPF internal report states that the February 14 terrorist attack on its convoy that killed 40 jawans in Pulwama, Jammu, and Kashmir was preceded by a “massive intelligence failure” as a CRPF inquiry showed though intelligence agencies had alerted the force about a general improvised explosive device (IED) threat, it did not have any “input” regarding a “threat from a car-borne suicide bomber” and the Government allowed a convoy of 78 vehicles and 2,547 jawans to enter that zone despite receiving that warning.
