Srinagar: Protests broke out at a village in north Kashmir's Kupwara district this morning as locals claimed that a youth killed in an encounter with security forces on Tuesday was not a militant but a student who had gone missing a day before.   

"The militant killed in the encounter at Hangnikote forest area in Vilgam (village on Tuesday) was identified yesterday as Shahid Bashir Mir (21), a resident of Dariel Tarathpora Vilgam and his body was handed over to his family," a police official said.   

He said about 400-500 people including Mir's family, assembled at Tarathpora Chowk with his body and started protesting today. "They are alleging that he (Mir) was not a militant, but a Degree College student who was missing since August 21, 2017 and a missing report has also been lodged on 22 August in police station Vilgam," the official said.   

Reportedly, he was not keeping "mentally fit" for the past one-two months, he said.   On Tuesday, the Army had said security forces launched a cordon and search operation at Hangnikote in Haphruda forest area of Handwara, 85 kms from here, following information about presence of militants there.   

An army official had said that during the searches, militants opened fire on security forces who retaliated, triggering a gun-battle. He had said one unidentified militant was killed in the exchange of fire. PTI