Srinagar,30-Mar; A former journalist was among two militants killed in an encounter with security forces in Rainawari area of Srinagar on Wednesday, police said.”#SrinagarEncounterUpdate: Killed terrorist (Rayees Ah Bhat) was earlier a journalist &was running online news portal ‘ValleyNews Service’ in Anantnag. Joined terrorist ranks in 8/2021 &was categorised ‘C’ in our list. 02 FIRs are already registered against him for terror crimes, ” a police spokesman said.A police officer identified duo as Rayees Ahmad Bhat son of Abdul Hameed Bhat of Shahbad Veeri Bijbhera and Hilal Ahmad Rah alias Shaboo son of Safeer Ahmad Rah of Kuthipora Waghama Bijbehara.Official sources confirmed that that Rayees had gone missing on 8th August last year while Rah went missing on 18th October same year. Both were affiliated with Lashkar-i-Toiba and were category-C militants.Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir, said that the involvement of a former journalist in crimes indicates a clear case of misuse of media as Two FIRs are already registered against him.”Before joining militant ranks, Rayees was running an online news portal the officer said.Another militant killed in the encounter has been identified as Hilal Ahmad Rah, a resident of Bijbehara. Hilal was also a ‘C’ categorised militant.Kumar said that both were involved in several recent crimes including civilian killings.Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition have been recovered from the encounter site, according to J&K police.Pertinently police in a tweet said that two militants were killed in a brief shootout at Rainawari here at around 1:00am.(CNS)
