A cricketer turned militant was killed in a gunfight on Friday morning in a gunfight with the government forces in Rakhama village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
The killed militant was identified as Mujeeb Lone son of Mohammad Amin, a resident of Redwani village of district Kulgam. Lone was a cricket player, who had joined militant ranks only 20-days ago.
The gunfight had started when a joint team of police, army and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation on specific information about the presence of militants in the area.
Quoting a senior police officer, Kashmir Dot Com news agency reported that he said when the joint team of forces approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon them which was retaliated, triggering a gunfight.
During the search operation, as the presence of militant got ascertained he was given opportunity to surrender, instead he fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter.
The police confirmed that in the ensuing gunfight, one militant identified as Mujeeb Lone son of Mohd Amin Lone resident of Redwani Bala Kulgam was killed and his body was retrieved from the site.
As per police records, “he had joined the militant folds recently and was linked with proscribed militant outfit LeT. He was responsible for creating terror among the locals and had been coercing innocent citizens to sympathise with anti-national elements.”
“Incriminating materials, arms & ammunition including one pistol, 01 magazine were also recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes,” read the statement.
Police also requested people to cooperate with them till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any.
