Pinglena encounter leaves four families homeless
Pulwama: Four families have been rendered homeless after their residential houses were damaged in a fierce gun battle that continued for 18-hours long between militants and forces in Pinglena village of Pulwama on Monday.
The encounter also led to the killing of nine persons including four soldiers, a cop, three militants and one civilian while as nearly half a dozen army soldiers were injured.
In the gunfight, two residential houses, three kitchen and four cowsheds and one grain shed were completely damaged.
Two brothers, Muhammad Abdullah Hajam and AbbliHajam said, “We have lost our house in an encounter yesterday. Besides, two separate kitchens and two cowsheds also caught fire in the gun battle.”
Another local Mohammad YousufHajam said that he has lost his house, separate kitchen and cowshed during this gun battle. The trio said their property worth lakhs have been destroyed.
Noor Mohammad Hajam, neighbor and close relative of trio said, “I also lost my cowshed while a cow worth seventy thousand also died in the gunfight. The leg of another cow was also damaged by a bullet during the encounter.”
“Around 6 am in the morning, someone knocked at our door and asked us that search is going on in the area and we were asked to open the doors quickly. Just after 15 minutes when we opened the door the man immediately entered in our house and asked us to leave the house as soon as possible,” said Mohammad AbdullahaHajam, owner of the damaged house.
“During the gun battle hours, all the family members of the Mohammad AbdullahaHajam, AbbliHajam and Mohammad YousufHajam were staying at our house and at around 9:30 am in the morning were shifted to other house in the neighborhood by J&K police,” said Noor Mohammad Hajam.
Ali Mohammad Bhat, whose house also lies in the same lane of the encounter site said at around 6:45 am in the morning, forces searched their house but when finding no one inside, they moved towards the cowshed and they came under fire but we had no clue about the presence of militants in the cowshed as they (family) had not came out of house since gunshots were heard during the midnight.
“During the gun battle, we lost our cowshed, grain shed and window panes of our house” said, Ali Mohammad Bhat, adding that his elder son Manzoor Ahmad Bhat was beaten by forces leaving him with grave injuries on his legs.
All the victims of the encounter said that they lost property worth lakhs and have been left without shelter and even without cloths to wear.
The four families comprising about 30 family members demanded compensation from the Governor led administration.
However, during the funeral prayers of the slain civilian and militant, some locals were collecting donations for the affected families.
