March 03
Shabir Khan/ Sajad Hameed
At around 6 pm on Thursday, the Forces including 22 RR of Indian Army, Jammu Kashmir Police and CRPF laid a cordon and search operation in the Babagund area of Langate in Handwara belt of North Kashmir’s Kupwara District.
After conducting siege for nearly six hours, contact was finally established with Militants when they opened fire upon Forces around 1215 am on Friday, and immediately reinforcements were rushed to the spot.
Around 6 am on Friday morning, the firing stopped, however it restarted within half an hour, after an intense gun battle of nearly four hours, the firing stopped again.
“We presumed that the Militants were dead, however while conducting operations to search the body of dead Militants, they rose from the rubble and started firing immediately towards the Forces, injuring many while two died on the spot.”
Among the injured, three succumbed to their injuries later, an official said.
Para commandos joined the forces comprising Army, CRPF and Special Operations Group of Police yesterday morning in view of stand off, he added
He said that the operation at Babagund area of Kupwara took time as it posed considerable difficulties to the security forces due to the topography of the area.
The Locals said that as soon as the sound of bullets reverberated in the area, hundreds of locals poured out on the streets raining stones on the Government Force personnel, who fired tear smoke shells at them, during the clashes at least six youth were injured.
One youth named Waseem son of Mohammed Akbar Mir, a resident of Sagipora in Sopore was killed when Forces opened fire upon protesters.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, a reporter said that Forces did not allow any journalist to carry out his professional duty, “They disallowed all the journalists to cover the encounter,” a journalist told The Kashmiriyat.
Wishing to remain anonymous, he said that the Journos have been stopped by the forces and are not being allowed beyond that point.
Meanwhile ambulances carrying paramedic staff were also been disallowed to reach the encounter area where dozens of families are believed to be trapped. The paramedics staff was on the way to vacate some of the persons who had called the hospital after facing health issues, but the forces disallowed them to move ahead.
More than 50 people, as Locals had earlier told The Kashmiriyat, have been confined by Forces inside a single house.
Locals Speak
The Locals of the area while speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that the people residing nearby were locked inside a single house by the forces as soon as the encounter raged.
“Disallowing movement, at least fifty people were locked inside a single house, however during search operations, the locals were used as a human shield and asked to search the houses,” A Local told The Kashmiriyat.
He said that at Five three houses have been damaged as forces blasted these houses, when they were unable to find Militants.
He said that Militants kept on shifting locations easily from one house to the other.
Assuming Militants to be dead, they entered a house and started searching it, one of the Militants rose from the rubble and fired indiscriminately at the Forces, injuring many of them and later managed to escape the house.
As per the Locals one of the Militants was a Local and the other one was a foreigner.
They said that during the operation forces vandalized many houses and used indiscriminate force against civilians including the protesters.
“They fired bullets indiscriminately against the protesters, but they could have used pellets or tear smoke shells instead,” a Local said while speaking to The Kashmiriyat.
Police Version
The encounter broke out on Thursday night after the joint team of security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation at Babagund Langate area of Handwara following information about the presence of Militants there. .
As many as 11 security personnel including a Central Reserve Police Force officer have been injured in the battle. The Government Force personnel who were killed have been identified as Naseer Kholi and Ghulam Mustafa of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, and Pintu and Vinod of the CRPF.
The soldier who died on Sunday has been identified as Shyam Narayan Singh Yadav, a police statement said.
“This operation posed considerable difficulties to the security forces due to the topography of the area,” the statement said. “Area where the terrorists were hiding was very congested and civilians in the adjoining houses had to be evacuated to the safer places away from the site of encounter.”
The bodies of the killed Militants have been retrieved along with arms and ammunition and their identity is being ascertained.
The police said “incriminating materials” including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter. They said a case has been registered in the matter.
“Citizens are requested not to venture inside the encounter zone since such an area can prove dangerous due to stray explosive materials,” the police statement added. “People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosives materials if any.”