J&K: Top Hizbul terrorist Riyaz Naikoo killed along with two more in operation in Pulwama district

Top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Riyaz Naikoo has been killed along with two others by Indian security forces in an operation in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, said senior security official.

Riyaz Naikoo, who was at the front of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen in the valley, was trapped in a joint operation set in motion by security forces in Beighbora village of Pulwama district earlier in the day.

Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh was in charge of the operation.

A senior police official deemed Riyaz’s elimination as a huge sussess. He had been on the run for about eight years.

Riyaz Naikoo is known to be close to the Pakistan based Hizbul headman, Syed Salahuddin, who was declared a global terrorist by the United States in 2017.

Riyaz was instilled as chief of the terror outfit after the group’s Kashmir commander Burhan Wani was shot down in 2016.

The tech-savvy Riyaz Naikoo, who used to give tuitions to school children before joining Hizbul Mujahideen, had played a main role in holding the terror group’s hold in the valley after the group’s Zakir Musa split the outfit in 2017 to form his own group Ansar Ghazwatul Hind. Zakir Musa’s new outfit was claimed to be an affiliate of Al Qaeda. Musa was killed in an encounter in Tral in May 2019.

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