A local militant was killed during a midnight operation in Kalhar Kokarnag area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Tuesday morning, police said and identified the slain militant as Mushtaq Ahmed Haroo alias Adil, a resident of Pushwara Khanabal. Police sources said that the encounter started when a joint party of the state police and the army cordoned Kalhar area during midnight. “Contact was established with a militant and during the three hour long gun fight the militant was neutralized.”A police official told CNS that the slain militant was affiliated with Hizbul Mujhadeen. “He was a released militant who recycled and had joined militant outfit against some three months ago,” the official said.
The slain militant was laid to rest at his ancestral grave yard amid pro-Islamic and anti-India slogans. Thousands of mourners participated in his last rites. Meanwhile, police detained Mirwaiz South Kashmir Qazi Yasir and bar him from participating in the last rites of the slain militant. Condemning the police act, spokesperson Umat-e-Islamia alleged that police have crippled the movement of its president Qazi Yasir and he is being frequently detained. (CNS)