Top LeT militant killed in Valley
Cops says slain militants involved in number of ‘anti-national activities’
DUJANA ALIAS HAFIZ, who was at the top of a list of “most dangerous terrorists” released by the Army in June, carried a cash reward of `15 lakh on his head.
Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander and Pakistani national Abu Dujana was shot dead by security forces on Tuesday while allegedly visiting his Indian wife in a village in Jammu & Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district.
Dujana’s local associate, Arif Lilhaari, was also killed in the early morning encounter.
The militants were trapped in Hakripora area after a search operation was launched at 4 am. As the security forces zeroed in on the militants’ hideout, the latter opened fire, triggering the encounter, the police said.
Soon after the incident, protesters clashed with security forces in Pulwama, Srinagar and Handwara. A man was killed in Pulwama was killed in police firing while several others, including several police and CRPF personnel, were injured in the clashes. Internet services were snapped, rail services suspended and educational institutions closed in parts of south Kashmir as the encounter broke out.
Officials called Dujana’s killing a “huge achievement”.
“LeT chief commander Abu Dujana of Pakistan, along with his accomplice, killed in Hakripora, Pulwama. Huge achievement for police and SF,” tweeted the J&K police tweeted.
Dujana alias Hafiz, who was at the top of a list of “most dangerous terrorists” released by the Army in June, carried a cash reward of `15 lakh on his head, the police said.
Inspector general of police (Kashmir range) Munir Ahmed Khan said that Dujana’s killing was “good riddance to a nuisance in the area”.
He claimed that the during the search operation the security forces had tried to persuade Dujana and his accomplice to surrender. “We used the head of the family of the house where the duo was hiding to persuade them to surrender. Maybe Arif wanted to do it, but because of the presence of Dujana he couldn’t,” said Mr Khan in a briefing with Lt. Gen. J.S. Sandhu, general officer commanding of the 15 (Chinar) Corps of the Army.
Top Lashkar-eTayyaba (LeT) commander and Pakistani national Abu Dujana was shot dead by security forces on Tuesday while allegedly visiting his Indian wife in a village in Jammu & Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district.
The IGP said that the operations against militants would continue irrespective of the violent protests that take place during encounters or immediately after a militant is killed.
A police statement said that both the slain militants were involved in a number of “anti-national and subversive activities”, including grenade attacks on the security forces at various places in south Kashmir and murder of a former sarpanch Fayaz Ahmad Bhat in Pulwama in 2016.
Soon after word about Dujana’s killing spread, irate crowds of youth took to the streets in many parts of the Valley and clashed with the security forces. The police and other security forces fired bullets, pellet shotguns and teargas and pepper canisters to quell the stone-pelting mobs, witnesses said.
Firdous Ahmed Butt, a resident of Pulwama’s Begumpora, Kakapora, was killed when hit by a bullet in the chest during the protests, the witnesses and hospital sources said.
A nurse, Gulzara Akhter, and a student were injured when the security forces opened fire on protesters outside the district hospital, witnesses and hospital sources said.
A statement issued by the police said that a civilian was injured near the encounter site in the crossfire and he later died in hospital.
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A nurse, Gulzara Akhter, and a student were injured when the security forces opened fire on protesters