Hizbul Mujahideen's Masood Ahmed Bhat was the last surviving terrorists in Doda district, police say
In a major success in the anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir, security forces killed three terrorists, including a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, in an encounter in Anantnag district this morning.
Apart from Hizbul Mujahideen commander Masood Ahmed Bhat, two terrorists were also eliminated in the operation in Khulchohar area of the south Kashmir district. Police officials say that with Masood's death, the entire Doda district in Jammu region has become totally free of terrorists as he was one of the last surviving terrorists there.
The operation was jointly launched by the Army, J&K police and CRPF. After killing of three terrorists, the army said one AK rifle and two pistols were recovered from the encounter site.
"With today's operation at Khull Chohar Anantnag by Anantnag Police along with Local RR unit in which two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists including one district commander and one Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Masood are neutralised. Doda district in Jammu Zone becomes totally militancy free one again as Masood was last surviving terrorist of Doda District," J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh said.
"Masood was involved in a rape case filed by Doda police and was on the run ever since. He later joined Hizbul Mujahideen and shifted his area of operation to Kashmir," he added.
Jammu and Kashmir police had on Saturday said that 29 foreign terrorists are active in south Kashmir.
"There is a presence of foreign terrorists in the upper reaches of Kokernag, Tral and Khrew. There are about 29 foreign terrorists active in South Kashmir and we will neutralise them when they come down and our sources inform us (about them)," Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The police officer also added that the security forces have achieved a huge success by "wiping out" Hizbul Mujahidden from Tral area of Pulwama district and the aim is to wipe out terrorism from south Kashmir.
Last week, state police chief Dilbag Singh had claimed that over 00 terrorists have been neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
"During the last about five-and-a-half months, over 100 terrorists have been neutralised, out of them 50 plus were from the Hizbul Mujahideen, around 20 from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, 20 from the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the rest from smaller outfits like Al-Badr, Ansar Gazwatul Hind," Mr Singh said.
The DGP had also said the security forces have been successful only because people of the union territory were cooperating.
With inputs from agencies