A militant and a Central Reserve Police Force soldier were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Srinagar on Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said. The militant, identified as Zahid Dass, is allegedly behind the killing of a six-year-old boy and a CRPF soldier during an encounter in Anantnag on June 26.
Dass, a member of the Jammu Kashmir Islamic State, was killed after a unit of the Special Operations Group and the CRPF launched a joint security operation on Thursday night in Malbagh area of Srinagar, the CPRF said in a statement. The security forces also recovered a weapon from the site of the gun battle.
The police said that Dass had managed to escape on Tuesday after security forces had cornered him in Bijbehara town of Anantnag. However, two other suspected militants were killed in the gunfight. On June 26, the police had released Dass’ photo and said that they had filed a first information report against him after the Bijbehara gunfight.
The CRPF soldier and the minor were killed on June 26 after suspected militants fired at a security forces party in Bijbehara. The attack came two days after another CRPF soldier was killed in a gunfight with suspected militants in Pulwama. Two suspected militants had also died in the gunfight. Earlier that day, three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chewa Ular area of Tral.
On Wednesday, the Central Reserve Police Force had dismissed reports that its personnel shot a man after forcing him out of a car in Sopore town in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, after photographs of a weeping child sitting on his dead grandfather’s body went viral. The man’s family had claimed that the security forces shot him. Instead, the CRPF has alleged that it was militants who killed the man.
Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh had said on June 19 that over 100 militants have been killed by security forces in the region this year.
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