Srinagar: Hizbul Mujahedeen Commander Riyaz Naikoo was killed along with one aide on Wednesday in five hour encounter with security forces at Baighpura in Pulwama district. Naikoo’s associate identified as Adin were eliminated within hours of security forces killing two Lasker-e- Taiba terrorists in a separate operation at a nearby village.

This encounter brings the curtain down on an eight years run that saw him go from a mathematics teacher to a terror mastermind with a Rs. 12 lakhs bounty on his head. According to the sources there was tip off about Naikoo visiting Baighpura, less than 10 Kms from Khrew, to see his ailing mother Zeba even as security forces were engaged in an encounter with the Lasker-e- Taiba terrorist. Around 3 pm on Wednesday, a separate team of J & K police, the army’s 55 Rashtriya rifles and CRPF reached Baighpura and was immediately started exchange of fire.

After five hour exchange of fire, Naikoo was shot dead, his aide ran into a concrete bunker that was later destroyed with all explosives, police sources. Although Naikoo joined the Lasker- e- Taiba in 2012, his rise up ranks was apparently meteoric. He was known to be close to Burhanwani, who used to be Hizbul Mujahedeen’s postal boy till his death in an encounter in 2016. He was filled the void after Burhan’s immediate successor.

The Union Territory administration again suspended mobile internet across the valley and voice communications over all networks barring that of BSNL, after the news Naikoo’s death spread.