The importance of killing Kashmir’s Hizbul chief Saifullah Mir

New Delhi, Nov 02: On Sunday, the security forces achieved a great feat, when they gunned down the chief commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Saifullah.

He was killed in an operation jointly carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir police, Indian Army and CRPF. Following the death category A++ terrorist, Riyaz Naikoo, it was Saifullah who was heading the Hizbul Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir.

After Naikoo was killed, the Army and come up with a new list of top ten terrorists in the Valley. In the fresh list that was put up in May 2020, the Army had named Saifullah Mir alias Ghazi Haider alias Doctor Sahab on top of the list. He was classified as a Grade A terrorist. He was called by fellow terrorists as Dr. Saif because he had trained as a biomedical technician. He would also personally treat the injured terrorists. He joined the Hizbul Mujahideen in 2014.

The officials with whom OneIndia spoke with said that the death of Saifullah comes as a big relief. The Hizbul was witnessing a downslide, but he had managed to revive its activities to a large extent. Saifullah was in fact the one who masterminded the killing of 3 BJP workers, including a district general secretary in south Kashmir's Kulgam last week.

The official also said that he was targeting politicians from the BJP in particular. He wanted to create a wave of fear and in other words trying to derail the political process in the Valley at a time when the government is thinking of holding elections. Apart from this he had also led a series of attacks on installations and security personnel.

Following his killing the police said that eliminating him is a big achievement. He was aware of Naikoo's network and had managed to quickly resume all the activities of the outfit. He was also a menace for the locals as he would extort money from the orchard owners. He had managed to put the Hizbul Mujahideen in its place largely just in a matter of 6 months. His rise to the top of the Hizbul Mujahideen leadership was also very quick, the officials cited above said.

The police began tracking him two days prior to his death at Rangreth. There was information that Saifullah had come to Srinagar from south Kashmir and was hiding in a house. The forces cordoned off the area and the operation was launched. Senior police officer, Vijay Kumar said that the network of the Jammu and Kashmir police had become stronger and the police get information about any terrorists entering the city.

As the forces began searches in the area, the terrorists fired at them. This led to the retaliation by the forces.