Three terrorists killed in encounter with security forces in J&K's Anantnag

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Srinagar: Three terrorists were on Saturday killed in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.

An anti-militancy operation was launched in Hakura area of Anantnag district late on Saturday night following information about the presence of terrorists in the area, an Army official said.

He added that the three terrorists were killed in the pre-dawn encounter with security forces. 

A police spokesman said two of the slain militants were identified as Eesa Fazli of Srinagar and Syed Owais of Kokernag in Anantnag. The identity of the third militant was being ascertained.

"In the process, arms and ammunition which include AK 47 rifles, pistols, hand-grenades, etc. Were recovered from the encounter site. There was no collateral damage during the operation, " the spokesman said, PTI reported.

He said one of the slain militants was involved in a recent attack on a police guard post at Soura in the city, in which one police constable had been killed.

#IndianArmy #OpHakura (#Anantnag). Three #Terrorists killed. Operation in progress @adgpi @PIB_India @SpokespersonMoD @JmuKmrPolice @crpfindia

— NorthernComd.IA (@NorthernComd_IA) March 12, 2018

3 terrorists killed at Hakura Anantnag. One of them is unidentified still. This group was involved in recent cop killing/ weapon snatching incidents .

— Shesh Paul Vaid (@spvaid) March 12, 2018

Meanwhile, suspected terrorists hurled a grenade on a CRPF guard post in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Saturday evening, but there was no damage, police had said.

"Apparently militants hurled a grenade on a guard post of 18 bn (battalion) CRPF (at Damhaal Hanjipora) in Kulgam," Kashmir Zone Police had said on its official Twitter page.

"No loss of life or property reported," it had added.

On the other hand, the killing of Mufti Waqas, the mastermind of five recent suicide attacks in J&K including the Sunjuwan strike, has dealt a severe blow to Jaish-e-Mohammed as he was planning to target other parts of India, officials have said.

Barely 21 km away from the state capital of Srinagar, Waqas, who moved around under the 'code name' of Abu Ansar, was killed in one of the most swift operations carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir police and the Army on March 5, 2018, in Haitwara village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

After February 10, 2018, attack at the Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu, Waqas, an Afghan war veteran, was high on the radar of security agencies as he was giving continuous updates to 'handlers' in Pakistan and also assuring them that "the next attack" would be in the hinterland of the country.

A crack team was formed by the police with the specific job to trail Waqas - dubbed as a 'killing machine' for his skills in motivating youths to become suicide attackers.

It was found that he was instrumental in brainwashing and radicalising Fardeen Khanday, 16, and Manzoor Ahmed Baba, 21, to turn them into 'fidayeens' (suicide bombers).

The duo along with a Pakistani national stormed a CRPF camp on the intervening night of December 30 and 31, 2017, in South Kashmir's Lethpora, killing five security personnel. All the three terrorists were killed in the retaliatory operation of the security forces. 

(With PTI inputs)