40-hour-long CASO ends peacefully in Shopian

SHOPIAN — A 40-hour long Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) that was launched in Turkwangam village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district in wee hours of Wednesday ended peacefully on Thursday evening.

An official said that on specific inputs about the presence of militants, search operation was launched by joint team of forces including 44 RR, CRPF and Shopian Police.

“After conducting searches for around 40 hours, nothing was found in the area and search operation ended peacefully on Thursday evening,” he said.

Locals said that this was for the first time that entire village, which consists of around 1500 households, remained under siege. “On Wednesday morning, announcements were made on loudspeakers, asking militants to come out and surrender,” they said.

They added that only students and elders were allowed to come out and movement of general public was restricted to their compounds.

Pertinently, two youth from the same village, who went missing in August this year, are active with Al-Badr militant organization, according to police officials.

Moreover, a top commander of Hizb namely Zubair Ahmad Wani alias Tiger belonging to the same village was killed in his native village along with his two associates this year.