Hizb Commander Involved In Civilian And Migrant Workers' Killings Gunned Down In Jammu And Kashmir Encounter

A top police officer said Farooq alias Nali was gunned down in the encounter along with four associates at Kadder village in Behibagh in Kulgam.

Srinagar: The Hizbul Mujahideen received a major blow with the killing of its top gun and the longest surviving militant commander in southern Kashmir’s Kulgam on Thursday. The slain is accused of being involved in civilian and migrant workers' killings in the valley.

Farooq Ahmad alias Nali and also known as Umer was killed alongside four militant associates in his hometown in a gunfight which broke out before dawn, sources said.

The counterinsurgency operation launched jointly by Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army followed specific intelligence inputs about the presence of militants at Kadder village in Behibagh in Kulgam.

This is the second major strike by the security forces against Hizb since July when security forces killed their four terrorists inside a fortified hideout in a cupboard in Kulgam district.

But the killing of Nali, who is the key accused in several cases including targeted killing of migrant workers, is seen as a major blow to the outfit. He was evading the security forces for long.

The banned terror outfit carried out terror activities through him in south Kashmir, says a senior police officer, who described him as a key accused in attacking non-locals and civilians.

Kashmir has seen selected killings of non-local migrant workers and Kashmiri Pandits in the last five years after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

Citing one such case, the senior police officer said that Nali, working on the direction from his handlers across the border got Sarpanch Shabir Ahmad Mir killed inside his home in Kulgam’s Adoora in March 2022. He swiftly executed the plan through his associates, who were nabbed by the Police later, the officer said.

Absconding since signing up as a militant in 2015, Nali's house was raided by Jammu and Kashmir Police last year in connection with the killing of five non-local workers in 2019.

The slain was classified as an A + +, a designation for militants carrying a bounty of Rs 10 lakh.

Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) south Kashmir Javid Iqbal Matoo confirmed killing of five terrorists in the Kulgam gunfight but did not reveal the identity yet.

The counterinsurgency operation, according to him, was still underway and the bodies of terrorists were being retrieved.