SRINAGAR: In a dramatic achievement late on Monday, Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed to have killed two Pakistani militants including Jaish-e-Mohammad commander Saifullah in an encounter in the summer capital.
Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar told STATE TIMES that JeM’s North Kashmir commander Saifullah, along with another militant, who was still unidentified but believed to be a Pakistani cadre of JeM, got killed in an encounter that began inside a residential house in the densely populated Saraiballa late on Monday night and ended shortly before midnight.
DGP said that a small contingent of Srinagar District Police eliminated both the holed up militants in a surgical operation without any collateral damage. He said that even the house in which the militants were hiding did not suffer any significant damage. However, a Police official sustained a minor injury. He said that one AK rifle, one pistol and one hand grenade were recovered beside the bodies of the two militants at the site of the encounter. He dismissed reports that one militant had been captured alive.
According to DGP, Police had earlier received information that two Pakistani militants, including Saifullah, had left from Handwara-Sopore belt of North Kashmir and arrived in Srinagar with the plan of executing major strikes around the beginning of the Assembly session on May 25. He said that after two militant attacks, in which Police suffered three fatal casualties, Police worked hard and zeroed in on a house between Saraiballa and Punjabi Mohalla, close to Hari Singh High Street.
“We are now trying to track the movement of the militants who carried out two strikes today. We are sure to neutralise them soon”, DGP asserted.
Some of the residents who insisted to remain anonymous claimed that today’s firing in Saraiballa did not seem to be a “genuine encounter”. “We are not sure but it can well be a fake encounter to counter the damage suffered by Police earlier today. In the past, Police and security forces have enacted dramas and killed the militants or civilians in custody to make good their damages”, said a resident. He said that there could have been huge collateral damage and several houses would have perished in a real encounter.
However DGP maintained that it was a “neat and clean operation and a genuine encounter” which was conducted by Police with total professionalism.
