Srinagar
A day after the killing of six militants of the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of the radical Al-Qaida, the group is now only left with its chief Zakir Musa and three or four other militants in Kashmir, a police officer said.

Six local militants Soliha Akhoon, the deputy to Musa, Rasik Ahmad Mir, Rauf Ahmad Mir, Umar Ramzan Mir, Nadeem Ahmad Sofi and Faisal Javaid Khanday were killed in a gunfight on Saturday morning in Tral subdistrict.

The police have termed the killing of the six militants all hailing from Tral as a setback to the Musa group. “According to our records, the group is left with Zakir Musa and his cadre Junaid of Nawdal, Hamid of Lelhar and one militant from Shopian,” the police officer said.

A senior police officer said the Musa group lost its core team with the killing of Soliha and Rasik. Both were formerly associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen and when Musa parted ways with the group, the two joined him. Musa is now one of the most wanted militants in Kashmir.

“Though we cannot confirm the exact number of militants in the group but the killing of six of them in one go is for sure a serious blow to the group,” the officer said, adding that Musa parted ways with the Hizbul Mujahideen in May 2017 and called for a “caliphate”.

This month the security agencies were put on a high alert in Punjab following “intelligence reports” that Musa could be hiding in the state. Meanwhile, the Tral area observed a shutdown on Sunday against the militant killings.