Srinagar: A top militant commander, Zakir Rashid Bhat, popularly known as Zakir Musa, was reportedly killed on Thursday evening after joint forces, working on a special intelligence, trapped him near his home in the Tral area of south Kashmir. An official confirmation is awaited.

A gunfight broke out between militants and security forces at Dadsara village in the Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district late Thursday evening.

According to reports, a joint team of the Army’s 42 RR, Special Operations Group of J&K Police and CRPF cordoned off the village and launched a hunt for Musa.

“Musa had come to visit his home. But before we could trap him there, he left and hid in the nearby woods,” a top police officer told News18.

“We then cordoned off the area and trapped him. He was offered to surrender, but he didn’t oblige,” the officer said.

Musa was a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the militant group he joined in 2013 while pursuing engineering from a college in Punjab.

He had succeeded commander Burhan Wani after he was killed in July 2016. Later, he founded his own group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of Al-Qaida.

Musa had threatened Hurriyat leaders to hang them in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk area for calling the Kashmir conflict a political one instead of a religious one to establish Islamic rule.

Meanwhile, internet services have been shut in most parts of south Kashmir and will be shut in entire Valley soon.

All educational institutions in the Valley will also remain shut on Friday as per govt directions owing to a possible law and order crisis.