The police identified the slain militants as Azad Ahmad Malik, Unais Shafi, Basit Ishtiyaq, Atif Najar, Firdous Ahmad and Shahid Bashir, all from south Kashmir.

Six local militants, including Azad Ahmad Malik, a suspect in the assassination of the editor of Rising Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari, were killed in a night-long operation in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Friday.

“It is a major success. The operation was carried out without any collateral damage,” Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, S.P. Pani told The Hindu.

The six militants were hiding inside a jungle in Sekipora at Bijbehara, Anantnag, and a contact was established “before the sunrise”.

The police identified the slain militants as Azad Ahmad Malik, Unais Shafi, Basit Ishtiyaq, Atif Najar, Firdous Ahmad and Shahid Bashir, all from south Kashmir.

Also Read Who killed Shujaat Bukhari?

“Shafi, a ‘district commander’, and Ishtiyaq were associated with Hizbul Mujahideen. The other four were with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit,” said the police.

The police said a hue and cry notice was issued earlier against Malik alias Azad Dada, a ‘district commander’ of the LeT Anantnag in the assassination of Shujaat Bukhari and his two security personnel.

“Azad was a close associate of absconding accused Naveed Jatt, also a suspect in the case,” he added.

A senior police officer told The Hindu that Malik’s rifle was an INSAS, which had also been used in Bukhari’s assassination, “will be examined and a forensic report sought to corroborate the material evidence”.

Bukhari was killed on June 14 this year at Srinagar’s Press Enclave by three gunmen driving a motorcycle. “Malik was a suspect and was wanted in the case. Now material evidence could further establish his complicity,” the officer said.

Four AK 47 rifles and one INSAS rifle were recovered from the site of encounter. “All these materials were taken for further investigation and probe their complicity in other terror cases,” said the police.

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Lt. Gen. A.K. Bhatt, General Officer Commanding of 15 Corps, said it was a “surgical operation”. “In the past 12 months we have killed militants in hundreds. This indicates that we want a peaceful environment in the Kashmir so that people can live peacefully,” said GOC Bhatt.

Protests in south Kashmir

The killings sparked a wave of protests and clashes in parts of south Kashmir with security forces being pelted with stones. Hundreds of locals participated in the funeral of the militants and a spontaneous shutdown was observed in many parts in south Kashmir.

Hizb chief Syed Salah-ud-din said, “India has waged a war against Kashmiris and to end that, militants are sacrificing their lives.”

Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai asked the world community “to take notice of the violations and urge India to resolve the Kashmir dispute through a dialogue process in accordance with the United Nations’ resolutions”.

Meanwhile, unknown gunmen abducted three civilians, Riyaz Ahmad, Zahid Ahmad and Basharat Ahmad, a former special police officer, from Shopian.

The fresh abductions come a week after seven civilians were kidnapped and two later killed in south Kashmir by suspected militants.