J&K: Two suspected militants killed in gunfight in Pulwama, say police

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district killed two suspected militants in a gunfight on Wednesday. The slain militants include Yasir Parray, a commander of terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, the police said.

The gunfight took place in the Qasbayar area of Pulwama district.

Parray was an expert in making improvised explosive devices, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said.

The other militant who was killed was Abu Furkan, a resident of Pakistan, a police spokesperson said, according to the Kashmir Observer.

The police spokesperson said that the security forces had asked the militants to surrender after spotting them. However, they fired indiscriminately at the forces, leading to a gunfight.

The spokesperson added that Parray was involved in an improvised explosive devices attack at the Arihal village of Pulwama district, in which two soldiers of the Rashtriya Rifles and 17 others sustained injuries.

Parray was also allegedly involved in attack on a police checkpoint in Prichoo area of Pulwama, in which Head Constable of the Indian Reserve Police Anoop Singh was killed.

The spokesperson said that Furkan had been active in Kashmir since 2018.

“He was involved in various terrorist activities, recruitment of local youth into JeM [Jaish-e-Mohammed] terror folds and mentoring active terrorists of JeM,” the spokesperson said, according to Kashmir Observer. “He was responsible for providing capabilities on fabrication of IEDs.”

In October, security forces had killed another alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed commander, Sham Sofi, in a gunfight in the Pulwama district.

On November 8, the Central Reserve Police Force had apprehended an alleged militant, Sarwir Ahmed Mir, in an operation in the same district, according to ANI. Mir had recently joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a senior official had said.