Four security personnel were injured in the operation in Srinagar’s old city
Separatist Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) chairman Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai’s son was among two Hizbul Mujahideen militants killed on May 19 in an 11-hour long operation in a congested locality of Srinagar’s old city.
Four security personnel were injured and over 10 houses were damaged.
In the encounter which broke out on the intervening night in May 18-19 in Nawakadal area of Srinagar , a Jammu and Kashmir Police constable was killed while another cop , a CRPF jawan and two others sustained injuries.
Of the two Hizb-ul terrorists who were gunned down by security forces in the encounter , one was identified as Junaid Sehrai , son of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman Mohammed Ashraf Sehrai. Junaid Sehrai was one of top commander of Hizb-ul- Mujahideen
Two rifles were recovered from the encounter site. Mr. Singh said Junaid had come to the old city “to lure youth into militancy and encourage grenade throwing”.
After establishing a contact with the militants around 3 a.m., the security forces decided to hold fire till the morning. They engaged the militants in a gunfight around 9 a.m.
“The operation was a clean one. Only one house caught fire and it was controlled immediately. In the process of evacuating civilians, a policeman and a CRPF jawan were injured. Two more CRPF jawans were injured in the final assault, as the remaining militant hurled a grenade. All the injured are stable,” said Mr. Singh.
He said 73 militants have been killed so far this year and not more 240 militants are still active in Kashmir.
“It is a big success for J&K Police and CRPF, especially in the city grid and both are working together with optimum synergy on the ground and would keep doing outstanding works in the future too,” Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar told The Hindu.
Police sources said the operation was launched after a technical input was “generated and worked upon” by senior CRPF officials. It was the second time in the past two weeks that Junaid was spotted in central Kashmir, based on the technical inputs generated online.
With a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Kashmir University, Junaid, alias Amaar Bhai, 29, joined the militant ranks on March 24, 2018, just days after his father was elected TeH’s chairman. Sehrai’s father is a close confidant of Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani and is expected to succeed him in the conglomerate. Earlier, on May 7, Junaid’s “handler and commander” Riyaz Naikoo was killed in south Kashmir’s Pulwama.
According to family sources, police refused to hand over the slain militants’ bodies for burial in ancestral graveyards. They were instead buried in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district as per the latest standard operating procedure (SOP), a police official said.
The Srinagar encounter was the first major operation in the capital in the last two years. Internet and calling services on mobile phones, except BSNL’s, were snapped as a precautionary measure in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out in parts of Srinagar. Scores of locals converged on the encounter site after the operation. According to local families, over 10 houses were partially damaged in the operation. “I lost cash and gold in the fire, triggered by the blasts, which engulfed 10 houses,” said Nuzhat Jahan, a resident.
