Once known for its golden apples, pears and tall mountains, Shopian, the extreme southern district of the Kashmir Valley, is now in news mostly over militancy. Of around 116 militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year, 28 (24%) were killed in encounters in Shopian, including the district ‘commander’ of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Between June 7 and 10, 14 militants were killed in three separate encounters in the sector.
Also read: Four militants shot dead in J&K’s Shopian
Spread over 412.9 sq. km and with a population of 2,66,000, Shopian is around 61 km away from Srinagar. Its boundary has a series of sky-scraping peaks of mountains of the Pir Panjal Range. These not-so-easily accessible mountainous ranges and dense forests have been providing shelter to local militants, turning this idyllic location into a hotspot of militancy in the Valley.
In recent times, many top militants had camped in the region, including Riyaz Naikoo, the operations ‘commander’ of Hizbul. Naikoo, who hailed from Pulwama, used to appear at the funerals of slain militants and fire a volley of bullets into the air to galvanise youth support to militancy. He was killed in Pulwama on May 6.
Last month, a local militant, identified by the police as Hidayatullah