Anantnag
A top Lashkar commander, accused of killing ‘Rising Kashmir’ editor Shujaat Bukhari in June, and a district commander of the Hizb were among six militants killed in a fierce gunfight in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district, 52 km south of Srinagar, today.

The police identified the dead as Lashkar commander Azad Malik, alias Daada, of Arwini Bijbehara; Unais Shafi Bhat of Takia Bal, Hizb’s Bijbehara district commander; Firdaus Ahmad Mir, Lashkar’s Pulwama district commander; Basit Ahmad Mir of Khannabal, Lashkar’s Anantnag operative; Shahid Ahmad Malik of Sangam, Anantnag, and Hizb’s Atif Hassan Najar of Waghama, Bijbehara. Malik alias Daada was a confidant of Pakistani Lashkar commander Naveed Jatt. He had joined militancy in December 2016. It is believed Daada and Jatt killed editor Bukhari and his two guards in Srinagar’s Press Enclave on June 14.

Sources said the police received inputs regarding a meeting of Lashkar and Hizb operatives in Bijbehara area. “An orchard was cordoned off at 2 am. The militants were hiding in a shed raised on the orchard premises,” a police official said.

The militants opened fire. “In the gunfight, that lasted a few hours, all six militants were eliminated,” the official said, adding that there was no collateral damage. The bodies of the militants were handed over to the families after medico-legal formalities. Soon after, restrictions were imposed in parts of Anantnag. Also, mobile Internet services were snapped in most parts of south Kashmir.