Suhail Khan
Srinagar, March 22 : Police on Friday claimed the minor who lost his life during gunfight in north Kashmir’s Hajin Town of Bandipora district was killed by a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Ali.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bandipora Rahul Malik told reporters at a press conference that since a week, they were receiving information about the presence of militants in Hajin area. “In the process, we launched lot many CASOs and yesterday we have had three cordon-and-search-operation during which an encounter raged.
“In the encounter initially we rescued the six civilians in the first two hours and after that, we came to know that two more civilians were inside who were taken hostage by these two militants,” the SSP claimed.
The officer said they tried several methods to rescue the civilians. “The most important one was that we made asked their relatives to make announcements from mikes and loudspeakers. We also involved the Auqaf committee members to announce from mosque loudspeakers. Apart from that we also involved our team which is specialized in-room intervention and they went into the third floor but by the time again the militants fired at them,” the SSP said.
He said that they tried to send the mother of one of the civilians inside the house. “The mother went inside and she appealed but the militants again opened fire. In that process, we were able to rescue one hostage, the uncle of the minor boy, and we again appealed militants in presence of the magistrate who was called to the site to release the boy but the efforts couldn’t be matured and finally, the fire from militant side intensified and we also retaliated.
