Srinagar, June 26 (KNO): With the killing of three local Hizb militants from Tral belt in an encounter at Chewa Ullar area of Tral on Friday, Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar said that Hizb outfit has been wiped out from Tral, first time since the eruption of militancy in 1989.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir said after the killing of three militants in Tral encounter today, there is militant from the Hizb in the area which is for the first time since 1989.
Tral which was once considered as a hot bed of militancy has less than half dozen local militants active now, none from Hizb.
A senior police official told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that Qasim son of Hurriyat leader Gh Mohammad from Midoora was the only Hizb militant active in Tral from last six months. However, in May, Haris from Koil and in June, Basit from Laribal were recruited by Qasim in Hizb and all three got killed in Chewa-Ullar encounter.
He said that there are now five local militants in the belt, among them three are with Jaish, one with Lashkar and one with Ansar Gazwatul Hind.
Pertinently, since 2014 after militancy re-emerged in Kashmir especially in South, Tral had witnessed many top commanders who were active with Hizb. Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the face of new age militancy in Kashmir, was killed on July 08, 2016. He was from Sharefabad area of Tral.
The top Hizb commanders who were killed since 2014 include Aadil Khan, Burhan Muzzafar Wani, Subzar Bhat, Zakir Moosa who was part of Hizb who later floated Ansar Gazawatul Hind, Aaqib Molvi, Haamad Khan, Shakoor Laribal and Mohd Qasim alias Jignu—(KNO)