One of the most wanted active terrorist commanders in Kashmir Valley, Zakir Musa, who was Burhan Wani’s successor and chief of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, was gunned down by the joint team of security forces in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district late on Thursday night.
A senior police officer described his killing as the “biggest catch” for the security forces chasing top commanders in the South Kashmir districts to flush out holed up ultras in the area. So far, 87 terrorists have been eliminated by the security forces in different operations across the Kashmir Valley this year.
A household name, Zakir Musa, was the lone surviving member of the Burhan Wani group. He was currently heading the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. Before joining the ranks of a terror outfit in 2013, he was studying engineering in a private engineering college in Punjab.
He hit the headlines after threatening to behead separatist leaders of the Hurriyat Conference for calling Kashmir a political dispute instead of a “religious struggle” to establish an Islamic state.
According to police spokesman, Musa fired at the security forces when they were involved in search operation at Batpora in Dadsara area of Awantipora on late Thursday night.
Musa was reportedly given the offer to lay down his arms and surrender but he refused and retaliated by opening heavy fire on the security forces. In the ensuing encounter, he was killed and the body was retrieved from the site of encounter. The killed terrorist was identified as Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Musa of Noorpora Tral.
The terrorist was carrying rocket, grenade launcher, projectiles, huge ammunition and war-like stores.
According to the police records, Zakir Musa had a long history of terror crime records since 2013.
As per police records, Zakir was involved in planning and executing a series of terror attacks in the area and many other civilian atrocities.
Several terror crime cases were registered against him. He was also involved in inciting youth for terrorist activities, bank dacoity at J&K Bank Noorpora, raising of funds for terrorist activities. In the first week of May this year, he was declared as pro-claimed offender by NIA special court Mohali Punjab on May 2, 2019 in the NIA case. The said case pertains to his involvement in serial blasts at Jalandhar Punjab on September 14, 2018 for which a case was registered at Maqsudan Jalandhar Police Station. The investigation of the said case was later taken by the NIA.
Hours after news of his killing spread like wildfire, protests broke out in parts of Srinagar, Pulwama and Shopian forcing authorities on Friday to impose restrictions in parts of the Valley. After the body of the terrorist was handed over to his family for the final rights, all educational institutions across Kashmir Valley were shut down. Mobile Internet services were snapped across the Valley to maintain law and order. Even speed of fixed landline broadband connections were reduced to prevent uploading of inflammatory posts and pictures.
Heavy deployments were made in capital city Srinagar, south Kashmir’s Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam districts among other areas.
