intelligence input” gave specific details about the whereabouts of Naikoo. Multiple fields and railway tracks were dug up after receiving the inputs about possible tunnels or underground hideouts.
At 9 am, contact was established with the trapped terrorists and a firefight ensued. The search operation was called of at 1 pm on Wednesday but the cordon remained.
As the gunbattle continued into Wednesday afternoon, the forces blew up a house in Awantipora in which Riyaz Naikoo was suspected to be trapped. The forces used around 40 kg IED to blow up the house.
Riyaz Naikoo carried a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on his head before being killed on Wednesday. Naikoo became the de facto chief of Hizbul Mujahideen after the death of Burhan Wani, the poster boy of militancy in Kashmir Valley, in July 2016.
As the encounter continued and Naikoo remained trapped inside the Pulwama village, authorities snapped internet services across Kashmir, fearing a law and order situation.
In a simultaneous gunbattle in another village in Pulwama district, two unidentified militants were killed hours before Naikoo’s death.
In Sharshali village, two militants who are yet to be identified were gunned down in an encounter with security forces.
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