al-Qaeda militant, police officer killed in shootout in Srinagar

A militant of Zakir Musa’s al-Qaeda group in Kashmir died on Friday hours after he was wounded in the shootout on the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar in which a police officer was killed and another wounded.

Security forces also managed to capture one of the two attackers in the latest gunfight at Srinagar’s Zakura between security forces and rebels in the restive state.

Police said that the body of Mugees Ahmad Mir, who is alleged to be a member of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind led by Musa, reached home at Parimpora Srinagar late in the evening.

“Mugees was fatally injured in the gunfight at Zakura in which one of our sub inspector was martyred. However the militant managed to escape from the spot. He must have succumbed. His body taken home by the locals,” said superintendent of police, Amod Nagpure.

Earlier, officials said, the police launched a cordon and search operation after receiving information about the presence of militants in Zakura area of Srinagar.

“Militants opened fire on the search party seriously wounding a sub-inspector and a special police officer,” Srinagar’s senior superintendent of police Imtiyaz Parray said.

Inspector general of police (Kashmir range) Muneer Khan later confirmed to the Hindustan Times that sub-inspector Imran Ahmad succumbed to his injuries.

More than 1,500 police personnel have been killed in the valley since insurgency broke out in 1989. In June, a deputy superintendent of police – Mohammed Ayub Pandith – was lynched by a mob outside Srinagar’s main mosque.

Several policemen have been killed or attacked and their homes ransacked by suspected militants in recent months, seen as warnings to local police personnel to stop participating in counter-insurgency operations.