Terrorists who killed cop gunned down in J&K

New Delhi, Feb 05: In a major success for the security agencies, two terrorists of The Resistance Front were gunned down in an encounter at the Zakura area of Jammu and Kashmir.

On of them killed has been identified as Ikhlaq Hajam, Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar said. Hajam was involved in the killing of a head constable Ali Muhammad in Anantnag. Following the killing of the two TRF terrorists, incriminating material was recovered.

Last week, terrorists killed Ali at his residence in Anantnag. He was rushed to hospital where he was declared brought dead. "Strongly denounce the killing of Policeman at Bijbehara. Its barbaric, condemnable and deplorable act, urges police top brass to punish killers forthwith," BJP's spokesperson Altaf Thakur said in a statement.

Last month, the Jammu and Kashmir police gunned down five terrorists including top Jaish-e-Mohammad-e-Mohammad commander, Zahid Wani.

The killing of Wani is significant as he was one of the top wanted terrorists and was leading the outfit in the Valley. He took over as the commander of the JeM following the arrest of Sameer Dar in Srinagar in 2016. Officials tell OneIndia that Wani was key to the JeM as he provided both logistic support and planned attacks.

The security forces have met with plenty of success in the past two years and have managed to gun down scores of terrorists including top commanders. Wan's presence in the outfit ensured that the outfit was able to recruit and plan major attacks.

The official cited above said that his killing is bound to demoralise the cadres of the JeM. This would mean that the recruitments too would go down drastically. His killing comes in the backdrop of the security forces killing 21 terrorists in January alone. There have been 11 encounters already this month.

Five terrorists were shot down in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir. The encounters took place in Pulwama and Budgam. "5 terrorists of Pakistan sponsored proscribed terror outfits LeT and JeM killed in dual encounters in last 12 hours. JeM commander terrorist Zahid Wani and a Pakistani terrorist among the killed. Big success for us," a tweet by the J@K police read.

In the Budgam encounter one terrorist was killed and an AK-47 rifle was recovered. In the past month 22 terrorists have been gunned down in nearly one dozen encounters.