2 LET TERRORISTS SUSPECTED TO BE LINKED TO ATTACK ON BHAT KILLED

HT Correspondent

SRINAGAR: Police on Friday gunned down two foreign Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora and said the two men were suspected to have killed a Kashmiri Pandit employee a day before.

A police spokesperson said security forces neutralised two “recently infiltrated” LET terrorists in an anti-terrorist operation at Brar Aragam area of Bandipora. “The duo had escaped from recent anti-terrorist operation at Salender Forest area of Bandipora...police was tracking a local LET militant Lateef Rather alias Osama who was involved in terror incidents in Srinagar and Budgam in the last two months,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said the presence of the two terrorists was confirmed technically at the site of the killing of government employee Rahul Bhat, who was gunned down at Chadoora in Budgam district.

“A week ago, the movement of Lateef Rather was confirmed in Salindar area of Bandipora where he had gone to receive a fresh infiltrated group of terrorists of LET outfit. The presence/ movement of these terrorists was zeroed and shared with the Bandipora police and accordingly an operation was launched on 11/5/22 ...the other 2 terrorists managed to escape. However, police kept following the footprints of said escaped terrorists ,whose presence was confirmed technically in Chadoora area of Budgam ,where terror incident took place yesterday,” said the spokesperson.

The two terrorists were identified as Faisal Sikander alias Mohsin, and Ukasha Pakistan -- both residents of Pakistan. “The hunt for Lateef Rather is on,” he added.

Inspector general of police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar congratulated the joint team of police and security forces for tracking down the terrorists.