One civilian dead, over a dozen injured in protests after Naikoo's death

One civilian was killed in a protest that broke out in a village in Awantipora after the killing of Reyaz Naikoo, a most wanted terrorist and the so-called chief of banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, officials said on Wednesday.

Protestors pelted stones at the security forces when they were withdrawing from the encounter site at Beighpora in Awantipora area of Pulwama district, 40 kms from here.

The civilian was buried after the necessary formalities were completed by the hospital authorities, they said.

Taking a cue from North Kashmir where authorities did not handover the body of a 14-year-old boy who was killed in cross fire to his family members to avoid a large gathering at the funeral, the local residents kept the death of the civilian a secret till the time of his burial.

Mohammad Hazim Bhat, 14, was killed in a brief shootout when militants opened fire on a CRPF patrol party at Wangam-Qaziabad in Kralgund area of the north Kashmir district on Monday.

Three CRPF jawans were killed in the incident, police said, adding that a civilian, Bhat, was also found dead at the scene of the incident. However, Bhat's body was not handed over to his family and instead was laid to rest in a graveyard more than 30 kilometres away from his village.

At least four other persons have suffered bullet injuries and 12 others were admitted to the hospital with pellet wounds, they said, adding, the condition of all of them was stable.

Naikoo, who had been evading arrest for the last eight years, was killed in an encounter with security forces this afternoon along with a fellow terrorist.

In a separate encounter in the same district, security forces carried out a cordon and search operation at Sarshali following intelligence inputs that terrorists were hiding there.

During the cordon and search operations, terrorists fired at the approaching police party and in the ensuing encounter two terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba terror group were killed.