House owner, militant associate killed in cross firing during encounter: IGP Vijay Kumar

Says forces tried to evacuate them but couldn’t be saved due to continuous firing by militant; ‘Killed OGW was running fake call centre at house owner’s rented rooms, SIT headed by DIG to investigate about this racket’

Says forces tried to evacuate them but couldn’t be saved due to continuous firing by militant; ‘Killed OGW was running fake call centre at house owner’s rented rooms, SIT headed by DIG to investigate about this racket’

Srinagar, Nov 16 (KNS): The Inspector general of police Kashmir zone, Vjiay Kumar on Tuesady said that the building owner, Altaf Ahmad Dar was killed in cross firing during the encounter in Hyderpora area of Srinagar last evening.

Adressing a press conference here, IGP said that firing was going on from both the sides and two civilians including an OGW Mudasir Gul and the owner of the house were present in the house during the encounter.

He said that during cross firing along with two militants both these civilians got killed. “Our forces tried to evacuate the civilians who were inside the house but we couldn’t save them due to continous firing by the hiding militants. During the cross firing both house owner and OGW suffered injuries which lead to their death,” he said.

IGP said that Altaf was killed in cross firing, and it wasn’t a cold blooded murder. “I didn’t say that he was killed by militants or security forces. It was a self defence act and police resorted to every means to save them but couldn’t save because of continous firing from both sides,” he said.

He said that yesterday after the encounter, security forces allowed the family of Altaf Dar and Mudasir Gul to take part in their funeral. “To maintain the law and order we weren’t able to return back their bodies. So security forces took their bodies to Handwara district and carried on the burial of Altaf and Mudasir there,” he said.

IGP also said that these two militants were involved in the recent attack in Nawa Kadal on Sunday in which one cop was injured.

Replying to a question IGP said that he admits that it was a security lapse and such hideout at NHW is really a concerning thing and definitely it was the security lapse. “In future we will work to bust all such hideouts and will neutralize all these elements.” 

IGP said two to three militants were hiding at Hyderpora Bypass and the Police along with CRPF and army personnels carried out a cordon in the area in which security forces were able to locate the house in which militants were hiding. 

“Security forces didn’t know the exact hideout so we called the house owner. The owner of the house Altaf Ahmad Dar had given his three rooms on rent to a person namely Mudasir Gul who is a businessman by profession. Both of these were asked by the police and security forces to open the door but they didn’t respond,” he said.

IGP said that they gave them two chances to open the door and after that militants opened the door and started indiscriminate firing upon the security forces. “In self defence the search party of police retaliated and firing was going on from both sides which turned into an encounter,” he added.

He said that two militants were killed during the encounter and one of them has been identified as Alif alias Bilal Bhai alias Haider, a Pakistani militant and the other one is a local militant whose identity is yet to be ascertained. 

“Mudasir Gul, who was a contractor by profession and after some investigation police have discovered that Mudasir was running an unauthorised six cabin call centre at Altaf’s rented rooms. He had given one room of his call centre to militants in which 2 pistols, 3 magazines, and 4 mobile phones were recovered. In addition 6 mobile phones were recovered from the killed militants. Besides that Police have recovered medicines, injection, clothes and other equipments from the encounter site,” he said.

IGP said that after the recent attack at Nawa Kadal, Mudasir had given these militants shelter in his room where he was running a fake call centre. 

“Mudasir was a OGW of militants and provided them shelter in his room, but his death occurred due to cross firing during the encounter,” he said.

IGP added that they could have saved him but due to cross firing he got killed, but he was a OGW and was also involved in militancy.

He said that the investigation of the fake call centre run by Mudasir Gul is being carried out and the Police have created a special team headed by DIG who will investigate this call centre racket.

He also said that civilians who have given their houses on rent should report that information to the police. 

“It is the duty of every person to report the details of paying guests to the police. Besides that Altaf himself could have took cognisance of the persons who were living with his paying guests,” he added. (KNS)

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