Security forces gunned down Hizbul Mujahideen’s oldest commander Mohammad Ashraf Khan, 57, and two more terrorists on Friday afternoon in a shootout inside the forests of Srichand Top in Pahalgam, close to the Amarnath Yatra route in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The other two terrorists were identified as Mohammad Rafiq Drangay and Roshan Zameer Tantray. All three were killed in a combined operation by J&K police, Army and CRPF following information that terrorists were hiding in the Batkoot area of Pahalgam. They fired at the approaching security men, but were outnumbered, outgunned and killed.
Kashmir range IGP Vijay Kumar said a Hizbul terrorist arrested on Thursday in the Kokernag area gave away the position of Khan, alias Ashraf Molvi, during questioning. He called Friday’s operation a major success as the terrorists were in all likelihood plotting to sabotage the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath, beginning June 30.
Molvi was from the Tangpawa area of Kokernag in Anantnag district. He was operational chief of the Pakistan-backed Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group operating in the Valley. Classified as an “A++” terrorist, he joined the armed insurgency in Kashmir in 2000 after getting his weapons training in Pakistan the year before. Credited with reviving terrorism in the Kokernag belt, he was known to be proficient in assembling and planting IEDs.
The other two terrorists were identified as Mohammad Rafiq Drangay and Roshan Zameer Tantray. All three were killed in a combined operation by J&K police, Army and CRPF following information that terrorists were hiding in the Batkoot area of Pahalgam. They fired at the approaching security men, but were outnumbered, outgunned and killed.
Kashmir range IGP Vijay Kumar said a Hizbul terrorist arrested on Thursday in the Kokernag area gave away the position of Khan, alias Ashraf Molvi, during questioning. He called Friday’s operation a major success as the terrorists were in all likelihood plotting to sabotage the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath, beginning June 30.
Molvi was from the Tangpawa area of Kokernag in Anantnag district. He was operational chief of the Pakistan-backed Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group operating in the Valley. Classified as an “A++” terrorist, he joined the armed insurgency in Kashmir in 2000 after getting his weapons training in Pakistan the year before. Credited with reviving terrorism in the Kokernag belt, he was known to be proficient in assembling and planting IEDs.
