Five terrorists were killed by security forces in Jammu-Kashmir’s Shopian district on Sunday morning following an operation that lasted a few hours.

Among those killed was Saddam Paddar, a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, and Rafi Bhat, an assistant professor of Kashmir University who had joined militant ranks last week.

The encounter started early in the morning in Badigam village of Zainapora after security forces launched a search operation acting on specific information of presence of terrorists in the village. Initial reports suggested that there were 2-3 terrorists hiding in the village.

As the security forces cordoned off the area, the terrorists fired at them. A gunfight ensued as the security forces retaliated.

J-K Police DGP Shesh Paul Vaid confirmed the deaths of the five terrorists in the operation conducted by a joint team of Indian Army, CRPF and J-K Police.

“Encounter concluded at Badigam Zainpora Shopian, 5 bodies of terrorists recovered,” Vaid said while congratulating the security forces for conducting the operation successfully.

Reports say that two security force personnel – one each from Army and J-K police – have been injured.  A mob of stone-pelters tried to disrupt the encounter. Twelve of them were injured in police action.

The operation is now over.

The encounter comes a day after three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were gunned down in Chattabal in Srinagar. Three CRPF personnel were also injured during the encounter which started early in the morning and was over by the noon.

Security forces recovered three AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition from the encounter spot. One of the terrorists has been identified as Fayaz Ah Hamal, a local from Srinagar.

The incident, however, took a controversial turn due to the death of the civilian.

Identified as Adil Ahmad, the man was hit when the driver of a vehicle of the security forces tried to speed away to save the occupants from being attacked by stone-pelters who had gathered at the encounter spot. He was brought dead to the SMHS hospital in Srinagar.

Though the police initially denied the claim by the locals that Ahmad had died after he was mowed down by the vehicle, it later said that necessary legal action has been initiated in the case. A video of the incident had gone viral by that time.

Read More: Police initiates action against driver of vehicle that mowed down civilian in J-K

Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, too, had shared the video and accused the CRPF of “murder”.

“How a murder was committed by the forces today and then brazenly denied ! Is there no sense of humanity left in India?” he wrote on Twitter on 5 May.

Terrorists killing civilians

At least six innocent persons were shot dead this week by Pakistan-backed terrorists who are trying to create scare and block flow of information of their presence to the security forces.

North Kashmir has become the hotspot of civilian killings where three persons were shot dead in two separate incidents in the wee hours on Saturday, while three young boys were killed earlier this week in Baramulla.

Two persons were shot dead in the wee hours on Saturday by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists who abducted them from their house in the Shahgund area of Hajin in Bandipura district.

Terrorists also shot dead a civilian Mohammad Ashraf Mir and critically injured his wife in the Sopore town in North Kashmir.

Hajin has become a haven for Pakistani terrorists and efforts of the security forces to eliminate them have not yielded the desired results. Terrorists brutally killed two young boys of the village whom they suspected of being informers of security forces.

Reports indicate that some Pakistani terrorists with support of their local accomplices were behind these killings. The motive behind such killings was to create fear among the civilians as the terrorists suspect that information about their movement in the villages of North and South Kashmir was being provided by some local people to the security forces, said an intelligence source.