Hizb district commander among 2 militants killed in Pulwama shoot-out

‘Exchange of fire took place for only ten minutes’

5 Dariya News

Pulwama 26-Nov-2019

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants including the district commander were killed in a shoot-out at Drabgam area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district late on Monday evening, police said.According to wire service-Kashmir News Observer (KNO), two militants of Hizb including the outfit’s district commander Irfan Ahmed Sheikh were travelling in a load carrier.“A Naka was laid on the basis of a specific input and the load carrier was asked to stop, but they avoided the signal and instead opened firing. In an exchange of fire, both the militants were killed. The gunfight lasted for only five minutes,” the official said.A police spokesman in a statement issued here said that the slain militants were identified as Irfan Ahmed Sheikh of Naira, Tahab and another one as Irfan Ahmed Rather of Litter, Pulwama.“The slain were affiliated with the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit,” the spokesman said. Sources said that the driver of the load carrier managed to flee from the spot while his vehicle was seized. Meanwhile, hundreds of people turned out to offer the funeral prayers of slain militants in their respective villages.In June this year, the Union Home Ministry told Parliament that 133 terrorists had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir in the first half of this year. It said as many as 733 had been killed since 2016.The then Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said last week that no civilians had been killed since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status in August, but "on the other hand, our security forces have killed a number of terrorists and normalcy is returning there." (KNO)