Gazi Baba’s ghosts strike in J&K

Earlier, militants struck in Banihal tehsil of Doda district and killed five members of a family, including a village sarpanch at Chambalwas. The dead were identified as sarpanch Khadim Hussain, his brothers Rafiq Ahmed, a power lineman, Farid Ahmed, a revenue department patwari, besides a class IX student Imran Ali and sister-in-law Fatah Begum.

Khadim and his brothers, who had migrated to Jammu following militant threats, returned to their native village in connection with the marriage of their sister Khusnud which was fixed for Wednesday. Khadim’s daughter Tahira was also getting married the same day.

Late last night, when the family was discussing arrangements for the wedding, a militant entered the house and asked Khadim to accompany him. The latter, showing presence of mind, asked him to join them for dinner.

As the family prepared the meal, the militant suddenly rushed towards Khadim and opened fire. The sarpanch’s son Yunus pounched on the militant and snatched the rifle from him.

The militant started shouting and his accomplice rushed in and opened fire, killing five people on the spot.

In the border district of Poonch, police and security forces gunned down five top militant commanders at Sangla in Surankot tehsil and foiled plans to carry out a massacre.

DIG for Rajouri-Poonch range, S M Sahai, said that a police team rushed to Sangla following a tip off that militant commanders from various outfits were meeting there.

On spotting the police team, the militants opened fire to make good their escape. The police retaliated.

As the exchange of fire was in progress, security forces also joined the police and killed five militant commanders. The militants were identified as Babbar Khan, district commander of Al Badr, Wahid Abbas, area commander of Hizbul Islami, Khalid, area commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Wahid of JeM. The fifth militant could not be identified as he fell into the river after he was shot and was swept away.