Hizbul Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo was eliminated after a five-hour gunbattle in Kashmir’s Beighpora area in Awantipora on May 6, 2020

Kashmir: In a big boost for the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, one Hizbul Mujahideen over ground worker was arrested in Jammu's Doda district on Thursday. The terrorist has been identified as Raqib Alam. A pistol and a wireless were recovered from village Shiva upon his disclosure.

Alam’s arrest comes a day after Hizbul Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo was eliminated after a five-hour gunbattle in Kashmir’s Beighpora area in Awantipora on May 6, 2020. The slain terrorist carried a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on his head.

From a maths teacher to Hizbul commander in Kashmir, Naikoo was involved in the killing of civilians, attacks on policemen and security forces. The A++ (top terrorist) was a tech-savvy person and used to frequently upload videos to influence the Kashmiri youth to join his terror outfit. He used to loot the owners and farmers of the orchards and also involved in narco trade. The dreaded terrorist also collected cash from illicit cultivation of opium and 'bhang' in Kashmir.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat today said that the first priority of the armed forces is to eliminate terrorist leadership.

Commenting on the encounter of Naikoo, CDS Rawat said, "They (the terrorists) are nobody. They are people who are spreading terrorism, creating mayhem and not allowing normalcy to return. We should not give them much weightage. They are not heroes in the minds of the local population. People are only coerced to treat them as heroes."

The Chief of Defence Staff asserted that eliminating terrorist leaders helps in slowing down of terror groups' recruitment process. "It is the leadership which spreads violence and coerces local population, young boys and girls, through misinformation and then tries them to encourage population. If we will be able to eliminate leadership, we hope recruitment levels go down and there will be lesser violence in the Valley," he said.