Police verifying claim about militant from Hyderabad killed in Kashmir gunfight
SRINAGAR: With Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGH), an Al Qaeda cell in Kashmir headed by former Hizb commander Zakir Musa, claiming that one of the three militants killed in Sunday’s gunfight with security forces in south Kashmir was a resident of Hyderabad, Telangana, police in Jammu and Kashmir is verifying the claim and is in touch with their counterparts in Hyderabad police.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, S P Pani told New Indian Express that police is trying to ascertain the identity of the third militant killed in the encounter at Hakura in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Sunday.
He said nobody has come forward so far to claim the body of the third militant killed in the encounter.
Three militants including two BTech students Eesa Fazli, a resident of Soura area of Srinagar and Syed Owais of Guhnoo, Kokernag in south Kashmir were killed in the gunfight.
The identity of the third militant was not ascertained and he was buried in a graveyard in Boniyar area in north Kashmir, where the deceased foreign militants are buried.
Both Fazili and Owais were suspected to be militants of AGH but Pakistan-based militant group Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen had claimed that the slain militants were its activists. The outfit had claimed that Fazili, who had joined militancy in August last year, was district commander of the outfit.
However, AGH has owned the encounter and claimed that all the three militants killed in the gunfight were affiliated with the group.
The AGH identified the third militant killed in the gunfight as Muhammad Taufeeq from Hyderabad.
It claimed that Taufeeq started his jihadi journey in 2017 after migrating from India’s Hyderabad city to the mountains of Kashmir and was among the first in the ranks of AGW.
The AGH claimed that Taufeeq’s was given names of Sultan Zabul Al Hind and Abu Zarr Al Hindi.
The IGP said on the basis of reports in social media, police was ascertaining the facts.
“We are in touch with the relevant authorities for identifying the body of the third militant,” Pani said.
Another police official said police is also probing the waving of black ISIS flags during the funeral of one of the slain militant in Srinagar on Monday.
“We have taken note of waving of the ISIS flags and launched investigation to track down the youth, who were waving such flags,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the third consecutive day Soura area in Srinagar, where from one of the slain militant hailed, observed shutdown today.
