2 Hizbul militants killed in Valley

SRINAGAR : Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, including a top commander, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Srinagar’s Nowgam area on Wednesday, police said.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of militants in Suthu Kothair locality of Nowgam, security forces launched a cordon and search operation on Tuesday night.

Officials said Special Operation Group of J&K Police, 55 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force laid a cordon around the house.

The militants gunned down were identified by officials as Sabzar Ahmad Sofi and Ashiq Gojri, both residents of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, said Deputy Inspector General of Police, V K Birdi. “We recovered incriminating materials including arms and ammunition from the site of encounter,’’ the police spokesman said. One of the militants killed in the encounter, Sabzar Ahmad Sofi, was pursuing PhD at Jamia Millia Islamia. He had joined militancy after Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016. Sofi, has an MPhil and MSc and also had qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET).

However, Jamia Millia Islamia in a press statement in Delhi refuted that Sofi was registered as a student with the university and that there was no botany subject in the university.

Sofi is the second scholarturned-militant who has been killed in the Valley in recent times. On October 11, PhD scholar Manan Wani was gunned down at Handwara along with one of his associate.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted in Nowgam, Sangam and Sirhama areas of south Kashmir.

WASEEM ANDRABI/HT PHOTO Policemen patrol a street where protesters had set tyres afire to block the way to the encounter site in the Nowgam area on the outskirts of Srinagar on Wednesday.