J&K encounter: Srinagar shut down as people join slain militants' funeral

Kashmiri separatist leaders Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have been placed under house arrest after three militants were killed in Anantnag on Monday morning, according to a local daily. People have turned up in large numbers to attend the last rites of one of the slain militants.

Also, train services have been suspended. Authorities in Srinagar have ordered that schools and colleges remain shut as there are fears of protests in the city later in the day. Board exams scheduled during the day have been postponed, according to a local daily. The official Twitter account of Northern Command, Indian Army, said that the operation was still on at around 6 am.

The Director General of J&K Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, tweeted, "This group was involved in recent cop killing/ weapon snatching incidents."

Kashmir police tweeted requesting people to co-operate 'for maintaining order and ensuring peace'. Restrictions have been imposed in old Srinagar city and high-speed internet is also down. The tweet said that these orders are temporary and gave a helpline number.

The three terrorists who were killed include Eesa Fazli of Srinagar, Syed Owais of Kokernag & a third terrorist whose identity is being ascertained. The police said arms and ammunition which including AK 47 rifles, pistols, hand grenades etc were recovered from the encounter site.

"It is pertinent to mention that among the slain militants, one was involved in a recent attack on a police guard post at Soura in which one police constable was killed," the police statement said. No collateral damage was reported.

On Sunday evening, suspected militants reportedly hurled a grenade on a CRPF guard post in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, but there was no damage, police said.

A hot Kashmir summer coming?

Last week, two militants and four civilians were killed in Shopian in an alleged encounter between security forces and terrorists.

An army statement referred to the civilian victims as 'OGW' (Overground workers), a term used to describe non-combatant Kashmiris who provide logistical support to militants.

Following the encounter, protests erupted in the hill state continuing for days on end. 

The J&K Police filed an FIR against an army officer for firing at bystanders during the encounter, However, the Centre filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR. The apex court on 5th March accepted the government's plea as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act bars the filing of the complaint against Army personnel serving in the 'disturbed area' without the prior sanction of the central government.

Sunjuwan attack mastermind was targeting other parts of India

The killing of Mufti Waqas, the mastermind of five recent suicide attacks in Jammu and Kashmir including the Sunjuwan strike, has dealt a severe blow to Jaish-e-Mohammed as he was planning to target other parts of India, officials said.

Barely 21 km away from the state capital of Srinagar, Waqas, who moved around under the 'code name' of Abu Ansar, was killed in one of the swiftest operations carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir police and the Army on March 5 in Haitwara village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

After February 10 attack at the Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu, Waqas, an Afghan war veteran, was high on the radar of security agencies as he was giving continuous updates to 'handlers' in Pakistan and also assuring them that "the next attack" would be in the hinterland of the country.