Security forces’ overnight operation began on Tuesday evening when a major search mission was initiated in the village of Naikoo.

Srinagar, May 6 (IANS) Kashmir’s most needed terrorist and Hizbul leader Riyaz Naikoo was caught in his native village of Beighpora in Jammu and Pulwama district in Kashmir.

Top Hizbul Mujahideen leader Riyaz Naikoo was killed on a run for eight years in an encounter with military forces in the home town in Pulwama district of Kashmir on Wednesday, authorities said.

The Jammu and Kashmir authorities have indeed snapped broadband services across the region as a safety precaution, maintaining that there will be strict restrictions on the migration of people in anticipation of a potential question of law and order, police said.

Naikoo, the operational leader of the outlawed Hizbul Mujahideen, was caught in the area of Beighpora in Pulwama, officials said.

The Indian Army is awaiting official confirmation. Earlier in the morning, a police spokesperson said a top terrorist leader was caught in an incident including an accomplice but did not disclose his identity.

Officials later in the day announced the man in surveillance sights was Naikoo, who was carrying a Rs 12 lakh reward. They hunted of him for eight years.

After the death of Burhan Wani, the poster boy of activism in the Valley, in July 2016, Naikoo became de facto the terror group leader.