Body of a third militant recovered from the debris at encounter site at Balhama area of Khanmoh in outskirts of Srinagar city. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar district Imtiaz Ismail Parray confirmed that the body of the third militant was recovered today by the search party. The officer identified the slain militant as Abu Hamas, a top commander of Pakistan. “It took us time to sanitize the encounter site due to apprehensions of the presence of explosive material amid protests going on in the area,” SSP said.
The officer said that the operation in order to sanitize the whole area is going on and by today evening the operation will be concluded. The encounter had ensued after a group of militants made an abortive bid to snatch a rifle of the personal guard of BJP leader Mohammad Anwar Khan near Arsh medical institute in Balhama Khanmoh on Thursday. The PSO identified as Bilal Ahmad suffered injuries in the incident. Soon army, CRPF, and SOG rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire area as they intensified the searches, the militants hiding in the area fired upon joint team ensuing a gunfight.
The Joint team on Thursday evening razed to rubble four residential houses where militants had taken shelter at Balhama after they attacked the police party guarding the BJP leader, they had said. Later, the forces during the search operation had recovered two militant bodies from the debris identified as Rasiq Nabi Bhat of Tral and Shabir Dar of Awantipora.