A top terrorist commander and a wanted militant has been trapped in the Beighpora area of Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, the police said on Wednesday.
The Beighpora encounter is the third operation launched by Awantipora Police since Tuesday night on specific inputs received.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police informed that a contact has been established in the third operation in Beighpor area of Awantipora and a top terrorist commander is trapped.
Minutes earlier the police tweeted: “Third operation launched by Awantipur Police last night on a specific input too is in progress at Beigpora Awantipora. Senior officers monitoring since last night”.
Also, a terrorist was eliminated in the encounter at Sharshali Khrew area of Awantipora, which is still underway. This was another operation launched by Awantipur district police along with SFs at Sarshali Khrew, last night.
Heavy firing exchanges have been going on in the area since Tuesday evening when a massive search operation was launched by the security forces.
Meanwhile, soon after the encounters started, mobile internet services were suspended in Kashmir valley as a precautionary measure.
An IANS report had said that the top terrorist has been identified as Hizbul chief Riyaz Naikoo. However, officials are yet to confirm the identity of the militant.
Riyaz Naikoo took over as the commander of Hizbul Mujahideen after the outfit’s poster boy and commander Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Kokarnag area in Anantnag district on July 8, 2016.
Naikoo carries a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head.