Major who killed Hizbul commander in Kashmir's Pulwama had been threatened by him in viral video

Top Hizbul commander Sameer Tiger was killed in an encounter in Kashmir's Pulwama today.

The army major leading the operation had, only 24 hours earlier, been threatened by Tiger in a video. The video soon went viral.

In the video, Sameer can be seen interrogating an informer. He asks the informer for his name, and those of people working for the army in the area.

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He also tells the informer to not tell the army about the whereabout of militants.

At the end of the video, Sameer (who is not visible) can be heard telling the informer: "Tell Shukla that the lion has not stopped hunting. They think the jungle belongs to them. Tell him to come face me."

Shortly after the video went viral, Tiger was killed in the encounter. Major Shukla however was also critically injured.

Shukla is posted with the 44 Rashtrya Rifles in Pulwama's Shadimarg area.

Drabgaam village, from where Tiger hailed, falls under the jurisdiction of Shukla's unit.

Shukla was on Monday injured in the upper chest and has been admitted to the 92 Base Army Hospital in Srinagar.

Sameer was from the Burhaan group, the most-wanted group of militants led by former Hizbul posterboy Burhan Wani.

Sameer joined the Hizbul on May 8, 2016. Before joining the militants' ranks, police records say a number of cases of protesting and stone pelting had been lodged against him at the Pulwama police station.

Tiger was an A++ category militant and there was a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

(Sameer Tiger aka Bhat.)

Tiger would frequently upload videos and photos on social websites and was the first militant to post a picture of himself with an American M16 rifle.That revealed that Kashmiri militants had US-made weapons with them.

According to the police, Tiger was the mastermind of almost all the major attacks carried out by militants in south Kashmir. He was accused of attacks on a number of political leaders, activists, and the security forces.

It is also said that he was an expert motivator and had got some 50 youths to join the militancy in Kashmir.

Tiger had also played a major role in the escape of Pakistani commander Naveed Jatt from a Srinagar hospital in February this year.

After Tiger's killing, there are now three surviving militants from the Burhan group.These include Hizbul Chief Riyaz Naiku, Commander Saddam Padder, and Commander Zinat-Ul-Islam.

The security forces claim Sameer's killing is a big success for them and will help them control the militancy in south Kashmir.

The encounter
On a tip-off about the presence of militants in Drabgaam village, security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the village at around 9 am in the morning.

Contact with the militants was established at around 10 am after which a gunfight broke out and which continued till 2.15 pm.

The bodies of two terrorists have been recovered. Security forces have also recovered two AK 47 rifles and a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the site of the encounter.

The slain militants were identified by security forces as Sameer Bhat aka Tiger and Akib.

"At around 9 am in the morning we received information of militants' presence in Drabgaam village. Around 9.30 am we started cordon and at 10 am militants fired on us and showed their presence,. In initial fire, army's Major Shukla and his associate got injured. Militants tried to escape but we had tight cordon jointly by CRPF, 44 RR and Jammu and Kashmir police who fired and killed two militants. They were identified as Sameer Tiger and Akib.In this encounter, the two army personnel, including Major Rohit Shukla, got seriously injured," said Vinay Kumar, CO, 183 Battalion CRPF.

Massive protests and clashes with the security forces broke out after the encounter began when people in the area learnt that the trapped militants included Tiger.

One civilian was killed and 15 injured in the clashes.