Militancy poster boy Burhan Wani killed in Kashmir

Burhan Wani, Jammu and Kashmir's most wanted local guerrilla commander who became a poster boy of militancy, was killed on Friday with two associates by security forces in Anantnag district, police said.

A police officer told IANS that Hizbul Mujahideen's Wani was killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Bamdoora (Kokarnag) village.

The officer said the security forces acted on specific information about Wani's presence and surrounded a house in the village.

"When challenged, the hiding militants resorted to indiscriminate firing at the security forces triggering a gunfight.

"Three militants including Wani have been killed," the officer said.

Dealing with the fallout of the protests in wake of his death, authorities have imposed curfew in his native Pulwama district and are mulling similar steps in Srinagar on Saturday.

For the last one and a half years, Burhan Wani had become an icon of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and carried a reward of Rs one million on his head.

Wani had recently posted a video on social media threatening local policemen and other security forces with dire consequences if they carried out anti-militancy operations in Kashmir.

"It is no doubt a major success for us and a major jolt to militancy in the state," the officer said.

--IANS

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