A day after a Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead near his home in Achan Pulwama, his killer has been neutralised in an encounter that started late night on Monday in the Padgampora area of Awantipora.
The slain terrorist identified as Aqib Bhat belonged to the terror organization called The Resistance Front(TRF) which is an offshoot of Hafiz Sayeed-led LeT.
A 40-year-old man belonging to the Kashmiri Pandit community died after being shot by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on Sunday, in the latest instance of targeted killing in the Valley.
Sanjay Sharma was fired upon by terrorists while he was on his way to a local market. He succumbed to his injuries after being shifted to hospital. Sharma was a security guard at a bank in Jammu and Kashmir.
Additional Director General of Police Vijay Kumar today said that the terrorist killed in Padgampora was responsible for the killing of Sanjay Sharma.
In a tweet, The Kashmir Police Zone while quoting ADGP said, “Killed terrorist has been identified as Aqib Mushtaq Bhat of Pulwama (A category). He initially worked for HM (Hizbul Mujahideen) militant outfit, nowadays he had been working with TRF. Killer of late Sanjay Sharma neutralised: ADGP Kashmir,”.
An encounter broke out between terrorists and government forces in the Padgampora area of South Kashmir’s Awantipora late last night.
Based on specific input a joint team of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the army launched a cordon and search operation in Padgampora.
As the joint team of forces approached the suspected spot, the terrorists fired upon the forces, triggering off a gunfight.
In the initial gunfight, two soldiers got injured and were immediately rushed to the Army hospital for treatment. One among them succumbed to his injuries early morning today while the condition of the other is stated to be stable. Meanwhile, one more terrorist was killed in killed in the encounter taking the count of dead terrorists to two. Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition recovered. The search still going on.