Pulwama shuts after Kongan family claims kin among militants killed in Bandipora gunfight

Srinagar : A complete shutdown was observed in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district after on Wednesday after a family claimed that one of the five militants slain in Bandipora gunfight was their kin.

Reports said that the forces resorted to aerial firing to chase away the protesters who were demanding the body of the militant.

Incidentally, a family from Kangan area of Ganderbal district in central Kashmir on Tuesday claimed that one of the militants Parvez Ahmed Tedwa @Abu Mawiya was among the slain militants.

Earlier, two days after militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen claimed that five militants killed in Sumlar Bandipora encounter were locals, two families from south Kashmir districts of Shopian and Kulgam arrived in Bandipora with the claim that their sons are among the five militants killed in the recent gunfight.

Hizb Operational Spokesperson Burhanuddin had also told the local news agency that those killed in the gunfight were locals. “It was a group comprising five members who got trapped in Sumlar area and were killed in the gunfight,” Burhanuddin said.

According to him, those killed in Sumlar gunfight were Hyder Ali from Brazul Kulgam, Muhammad Umar from Shopian, Muhammad Sidiq from Bandipora, Mawiya from Kangan and Usman from Lolab.