Jammu and Kashmir: M.Phil scholar among 2 terrorists killed in Nowgam district

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SRINAGAR: At least two terrorists were killed on Wednesday in an encounter with security forces in Nowgam area, a police official said.

One of the militants, identified as Sabzar Ahmad Sofi, was an M. Phil degree scholar who had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. 

Sofi studied M.Sc from Barkatullah University in Bhopal and M.Phil from the Gowwalya University of Rajasthan.

Sofi is the third highly educated person to have been killed this year after joining militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The 33-year old Sofi also held B. Ed degree and had cleared the National Eligibility Test and Junior Research Fellowship.

This is not the first time when highly educated people have joined a terrorist organisation.

Earlier in October, Manaan Bashir Wani, an AMU scholar-turned-militant was killed in an encounter in Kupwara district in north Kashmir. 

Esa Fazli, an engineering graduate from Ghulam Shah Badshah University, was killed in a gun battle earlier this year as well.

After Fazli's joining, an MBA student, Junaid Ashraf Sehrai, son of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, also disappeared and join the militant groups.

"The standard operating procedures were followed during the operation and there was no collateral damage during the encounter," the official added.

The police received a tip-off about militant activity in Suthu Kothair locality of Nowgam following which the security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the early hours, the police official said.

He said the militants opened fire on security forces during the search operation, triggering a gunbattle in which two ultras were killed. 

Incriminating material besides arms and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site, he added.

Clashes broke out between protestors and security forces soon after the encounter ended, he said, adding the law-enforcing agencies were engaged in pitched battles with the stone pelters for most part of the day.

Authorities snapped mobile Internet services in the city and shut educational institutions as a precautionary measure.

(With PTI Inputs)

Jammu and Kashmir, Militants, Nowgam, Terrorists killed,