2 militants shot dead in Srinagar

One had a media card, say police; woman found throwing bomb at CRPF camp

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, one of whom carrying a media identity card, were killed in a midnight anti-militancy operation of the security forces in Srinagar’s Rainawari area on Wednesday.

“Two terrorists were killed [in the operation]. Incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered. One of the killed was a categorised local terrorists of the LeT and was carrying an identity card of media. It indicates a clear case of misuse of media,” Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said.

The duo was encircled by a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir police and the CRPF in Rainawari area and were killed “in a brief shoot out”. 

Mr. Kumar identified one of the slain militants as Rayees Ahamad Bhat from Bijbehara, “who was earlier a journalist and was running an online news portal ‘Valley News Service’ in Anantnag”. 

“Bhat joined terrorist ranks in August 2021 and was categorised as ‘C’ in our list. Two FIRs are already registered against him for terror crimes,” the police said.

The second slain militant was identified as Hilal Ahamad Rah from Anantnag’s Bijbehara. “Rah was a ‘C’ category terrorist,” the police said.

"The slain [militants] were tasked with attacking soft targets in the city," IGP Kumar said.