A top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, on the run eight years, was on Wednesday killed in an encounter with security forces in his home village in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, officials said.
The Jammu and Kashmir authorities have already snapped mobile internet services across the valley as a precautionary measure, in anticipation of a possible a law and order problem, police said, adding that there are strict restrictions on the movement of individuals .
Riyaz Naikoo, operational commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen, was trapped in Beighpora village in Pulwama, the officials said.
A police spokesperson said earlier within the morning that a top terrorist commander along side an accomplice was trapped in an encounter but didn’t reveal his identity.
Later within the day, officials disclosed that the person in their sights was Naikoo, who carried a gift of Rs 12 lakh. that they had been trying to find him for eight years.
Naikoo became the de facto chief of the fear group after the death of Burhan Wani, the poster child of militancy within the Valley, in July 2016.
