Gautam Gambhir, Omar Abdullah Spar On Twitter Over Terrorist's Killing

The killing of a terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir has triggered a war of words between the state's former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and cricketer Gautam Gambhir. After Mr Gambhir held politicians including Mr Abdullah responsible for Mannan Wani, a scholar from Aligarh Muslim University, taking to terrorism, the National Conference leader said the cricketer was poorly informed about the dynamics of radicalisation in Kashmir.

To which Mr Abdullah leader replied:

This sparked off a full-fledged war.

Terrorist Mannan Wani, one of the top men of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir Valley, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara on Thursday. Clashes broke out in some pockets of the district after the news spread. The encounter at Langate -- roughly 80 km from state capital Srinagar - had started after security forces launched a predawn operation after the police received a tip-off about the presence of two terrorists in a residential house in the area. Security in Jammu and Kashmir has been very tight on account of the ongoing urban local bodies elections in the state. Once a research scholar of the Aligarh Muslim University, Mannan Wani had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen earlier this year. He had gone missing from the Uttar Pradesh university, where he had been studying Applied Geology. A few days later, his photograph, holding what appeared to be a AK assault rifle, appeared on social media.