A gunfight erupted following intense clashes between locals and security forces in Batmurran village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, around 45 km from Srinagar. A local photojournalist received minor injuries while covering the operation.
According to sources, the security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Batmurran village at 5 pm evening , following inputs regarding the presence of militants in the area.
“There are reports that two to three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants are holed up in a residential house,” a police source from Shopian said. Clashes, however, erupted soon after a cordon and search operation was launched. Hundreds of people came out onto the streets and announcements were made in local mosques, urging more people to come out in a bid to try and give militants a safe passage. Security forces used tear-smoke shelling and aerial firing to disperse the unrelenting, stone-throwing locals. Sources told that intense firing was going on at the time of the filing of the report.
The encounter started when a mixed column of counter-insurgent forces comprising army, police and the CRPF rushed to the village at around 3 pm on Monday. As they started cordoning off the village, Some people took to the mike fitted mosque and announced an assembly. Well before the gun-battle started, clashes erupted. Though a section of the posse was busy locating the house, they had information about, most of the cops and the CRPF got busy in the clashes, residents said. They had specific information about the group of militants, that, initial reports said comprised of at least three militants, all belonging to Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Almost an hour after, the army had taken the home of Mohammad Yaqub Bhat into cordon. By then, his son was picked by police and interrogated about the presence of militants. As the cordon was effectively in place, and the cops fired the first fire, the reaction from the holed up militants established the contact.
By 11 pm there was the first blast in the home of Bhat,” locals said. “Subsequently, the army put on its generators and established the floodlighting and reinforced the cordon.”
The encounter continued over the night. As the Fajr prayer was over, people re-assembled and the clashes erupted again. The fire exchange between the militants and the army , tear smoke shells were audible from the distance. By then, the forces had blasted two more houses that belonged to Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh and Abdul Ahad Ganai. Three cowsheds of the three families were also damaged and two cows were roasted alive in the gun battle. Bhat lost his car to the encounter as well.
So fierce were the clashes that the neighbouring dispensaries and the hospitals were almost overwhelmed. As per locals there were 24 patients registered from the spot that reported to district hospital in Pulwama, 23 reported to Birthpora Public Health Centre and eight were registered at Rajpora Community Health Centre. In some of the cases, the injured were rushed to Srinagar, mostly from Pulwama, in bullet and in serious pellet injury cases.
What changed the situation in the belt was the serious abdomen injury to Ruby Jan, known as Beauty Jan. Family sources said she was sitting on her veranda when the bullet hit her abdomen. She was immediately rushed to the district hospital where she was declared brought dead.
This young 30 years old home-maker was the spouse of Manzoor Ahmad Mir, a resident of Rajpora. She had two kids, a son and a daughter. She was facing some conjugal issues with her husband, as a result of which she was living with her parents. Ruby’s killing had an impact on the overall situation. It turned the situation tense and triggered more protests. It was at this stage, that the firing between the two sides ebbed.
“It was this stage when the third militant who was alive and fighting somehow fled,” one senior police officer said. “People mistook him as Tanveer and literally followed him till he reached a local ravine called Brag Naad.” Police and locals offer different names about the escaped militant but both the sources insist he was a foreigner.
With confirmation that two are dead and one has fled, the army and police started closing the operation that concluded with the recovery of bodies. Police identified the local as Tanveer Ahmad, an A category militant, who was in operation since September 2016.
After the encounter was over, thousands of locals who took turns to offer funeral prayers to the slain locals. While the slain local militant Tanveer Ahmad laying to rest the atmosphere turned gloomy. Two of his colleagues emerged from nowhere, fired in air as their parts shorts, and left the scene, witnesses said.
The police claimed that the killed militants were “involved in a number of militant incidents including the recent attack on the vehicle of J&K Bank near Poju Shopian on 11th of December 2017 in which two bank guards were killed”.
Another police officer identified the three bullet hit individuals as Aijaz Ahmad, son of Ghulam Mohammad Dar, a resident of Batpora, Shopian, who received a bullet in his leg and is in SMHS; Jehangir Wani son of Ali Mohammad Wani, a resident of Wathu who had a bullet in thigh and admitted to Bone & Joints Hospital and Imran Munir, a resident of Maspora, who has a chest injury near his chest. “So far, all the three are stable but I have no information about those hit by pellets,” the officer said.
Police Version of Shopian Encounter*
Acting on a specific input, Shopian Police along with 44RR and 14 Bn CRPF cordoned a cluster of houses at village Bata Murran Shopian in the jurisdiction of Police Station Kellar. While the cordon was being laid, hiding militants fired upon the joint search party, ensuing an encounter.
The cordon was strengthened and the civilians of nearby area were evacuated. During the encounter, on the request of family, police made repeated announcement to get Tanveer surrendered, which he ignored.
The militants continued firing on the security forces which was retaliated. Two JeM militants were killed in this encounter who were identified as Tanveer Ahmad from Bata Murran Shopian and Ali @Qari, a foreign militants.
Two AK rifles and other allied ammunition were recovered from the encounter site. Two security personnel which includes one jawan from 44 RR and a police personnel of Shopian Police were also injured during the encounter. Their condition is stated to be stable. Moreover, another terrorist fled from the encounter site by taking advantage of the darkness.
During cross firing one lady identified as Ruby @ Beauty wife of Manzoor Ahmad Mir of Bata Marran got critical injured who later on succumbed to her injuries at District hospital Pulwama. Nine civilians were also injured whose condition is said to be stable. These killed militants were involved in a number of incidents including the recent attack on the vehicle of J&K Bank near Poju Shopian on 11th of December 2017 in which two bank guards were killed.
Funerals
With two dead bodies in the village, there were separate funeral prayers. At least thrice the funeral prayers were offered to the slain militant, reports confirmed by police said. There were fierce Azaadi sloganeering and even women resorted to traditional Wanwun.
Interesting incident was the sudden appearance of two militants, police said both have been identified and one of them was a police deserter, on the scene. “They fired 6-7 bullets and left,” reports said.
As the police chief Dr S P Vaid wished his bodies “best of luck” for killing the militants, condemnations followed over the killing of the civilian. The separatist triumvirate comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik called for a day long strike on Wednesday over the civilian killings.
“The brutal killings of Misra Bano and Asif Iqbal of Kupwara, Ruby (Beauty) Jan of Shopian and Zahid Ahmad who was killed in Rajasthan India, clearly show that Indian army, occupational forces and police are here only to kill Kashmiris and pro-India politicians are deployed to provide legal shield to these killers,” a statement of the JRL said. “Kashmiris cannot and will never remain silent on this genocide and will observe a total shut down on December 20, 2017 to protest against this growing Indian aggression.”
