J&K police say 3 militants killed in encounter; families claim they were not involved in militancy

Srinagar: Police on Wednesday claimed to have killed three militants in an overnight encounter in the city's Parimpora area but families of the slain youths said they had no connection with militancy and that two of them were students.

The families from south Kashmir's Pulwama and Shopian districts also staged a protest outside the police control room here and claimed that of those killed, one was a Class 11 student, one a university student and the other

a carpenter.

While one militant was killed in the early hours of Wednesday, two others were shot dead a few hours later, a police spokesman said.

Referring to the claims made by the families, he said, "Generally parents don't have idea about the activities of their wards. Several OGWs (overground workers) after committing terror crimes like grenade throwing and shooting, among others, stay normally with their family."

Though the three killed terrorists "were not mentioned in our list of terrorists, yet two of them are hardcore associates of terrorists (OGWs)", the spokesman said, adding that of the two, one was a relative of top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Rayees Kachroo, who was killed in 2017. He said it is suspected that the third might have joined militant ranks very recently.