One among the slain according to the Jammu Kashmir Police was the chief of Ansar Ghazwat ul Hind identified as Imtiyaz Ahmed Shah. The Inspector-General of Jammu Kashmir Police said that Imtiyaz had various cases registered against him, which included attacks on Government Forces. A resident of the Rathsuna area in Tral, Imtiyaz was active since 2019.
One among the seven slain was identified as the 19-year-old Kashif Ahmed Mir son of Bashir Ahmed Mir, a resident of the Dadasara area of Tral in South Kashmir. “Kashif had gone missing from his home some weeks back, after which it came to be known that he had joined Militant outfit, Ansar Ghazwat ul Hind.”
On 26 March, The Kashmiriyat reported that a 19-year-old youth has gone missing from his Dadsara area of Tral of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Kashif Ahmed Mir, a student of class 11th left his home on March 19 and has been missing since then.
The family filed a missing report in Police Station Awantipora and the Police launched a massive search to trace the teenage youth, days later the news of his killing hit the internet and news websites confirmed that Kashif being one among the Militants slain in the Shopian encounter.
Pertinently, Kashif is the third member of his family to have been killed during the encounters. His eldest brother Nayeem Mir was killed during an encounter on March 03, 2010. “Nayeem disappeared after completion of B.Tech in 2009 and some weeks later it came to be known that Nayeem had joined Hizb ul Mujahideen,” a Local from Dadsara Tral told The Kashmiriyat.
Few months after the killing of Nayeem, Aadil Mir joined Militancy and later became one of the most prominent faces of Hizb ul Mujahideen in the Tral sub division of Pulwama district in South Kashmir.
Aadil Mir rose through ranks to become Hizb u Mujahideen commander at the age of 25. He was killed during a gunfight in the Busoo area of Tral on June 19, 2014, along with Adil Shah, the elder brother of Imtiyaz Ahmed Shah killed in today’s gunfight in Shopian district of South Kashmir.
Kashif’s elder brother Hamid Mir is the lone surviving male member of the family alongside his father, Bashir Ahmed Mir, a retired Government Master.
Bashir Ahmed Mir said, “Earlier I lost two of my sons, My elder son Nayeem Ahmed Mir alias Gaznavi was a B.Tech student who lost his life in Dudhkalan encounter with Indian Army in March 2010. His death instigated Adil to join militancy, and now as Kashif was growing up, he too joined Militancy.”
“Imtiyaz’s old brother, Adil Shah, a resident of Rathsuna area in Tral was pursuing a diploma in paramedics before he disappeared in April 2012. He was killed in a gunfight on June 19, 2014,” the local from Tral said.
In Shopian, officials told that, the 42 battalion of CRPF, Jammu Kashmir Police and 44 Rashtriya Rifles of Indian Army launched a cordon and search operation when they received inputs of Militant movement in the Jan Mohalla area of the South Kashmir township.
As soon as the searches intensified, the militants hiding in the area opened fire on the forces, to which the forces retaliated, the official said.
Seven militants were killed during the operation the official said, adding, “internet was suspended in the district as a precautionary measure.”
The Inspector-General of Police, Vijay Kumar detailing the two operations said that Ansar has been wiped out according to our records, “But there is no surety that nobody will join the outfit now.”
