Janjivan Bureau / Kashmir : Mobile internet services were suspended in Kashmir Valley on Saturday as a precautionary measure in the wake of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat in an encounter with security forces in Tral. Mobile internet services have been snapped across the Valley since the afternoon, officials said. Close aide of slain Hizbul Mujhaideen commander Burhan Wani, Sabzar Ahmad Bhat and two militants have been killed in the ongoing gunfight in Saimoh village of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, sources said.
Sabzar Bhat, seen as the successor to Hizbul commander Burhan Wani whose death last year plunged the Valley into one of its worst episodes of violence in recent years, was killed on Saturday, the police confirmed.
Bhat son of Ghulam Hassan Bhat, resident of Rathsuna Tral and Faizan Muzaffar Bhat son of Muzaffar Ahamd Bhat resident of Tral Payeen killed in encounter said police. Encounter which started on Friday evening and resumed today morning is still going on .
Meanwhile soon after the news about the killing Sabzar and Faizan spread,most parts of the south Kashmir observed shutdown and started protests.
Reports said that clashes between protesters and forces erupted in Anantnag, Khanabal, Pulwama, Pampore, Tral and Kakapora areas. The situation in most parts of the south Kashmir is very tense.
Saturday also saw 6 militants killed along the Line of Control, the de-facto border with Pakistan. The army said in a statement that it engaged them as they tried to enter Indian territory in the Rampur sector.
Forces had on Friday killed two members of the Pakistani Boarder Action team along the LoC. Hours later, a tip led them to a suspected hideout in Tral on Friday evening where Bhat is reported to have been hiding.
At least 100 civilians have been killed in protests and clashes with security forces since Wani died in July last year.
Wani belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen, an outfit that leads the militancy in Kashmir separatism and is considered a terrorist outfit by India, the United States and the European Union. He joined the outfit when he was 15 and went on to become the poster boy of Kashmir militancy.
