Killing of Aurangazeb avenged: Three Hizbul terrorists wiped out

Srinagar, May 19: Three Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists, including the one involved in the killing last year of Army jawan Aurangzeb, were Saturday killed in a pre-dawn operation by security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

Based on a credible input, a cordon and search operation was launched by police and security forces in the early hours in the Panzgam area of Awantipora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, a police spokesman said.

During the search operation, the hiding terrorists fired on the search party, which retaliated, he said.

In the ensuing encounter, three terrorists were killed and the bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter, the spokesman said. He said the slain terrorists have been identified as Showkat Dar of Panzgam in Awantipora, Irfan War of Wadoora Payeen in Sopore and Muzaffar Sheikh of Tahab in Pulwama.

The spokesman said that according to police records the three were affiliated to proscribed Hizbul Mujahideen and were wanted for their complicity in a series of terror crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities, he said.

As per police records, Dar was involved in planning and executing series of terror attacks in the area and many other civilian atrocities, he said.