TOP LASHKAR COMMANDERS KILLED IN J&K ENCOUNTER
Top LeT terrorist and a foreigner, Abdullah alias Asrar, were among those killed in an operation at Tantraypora Brath on Sunday night
SRINAGAR: Three top Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) commanders were killed and one soldier was injured during a night-long operation in north Kashmir’s Sopore village on Sunday, police said on Monday. On Sunday night, security forces launched an operation at Tantraypora Brath village following a tip-off about presence of terrorists in a house, police said. After an encounter, three militants were killed, including Mudasir Pandit, the top LeT terrorist, and a foreigner, Abdullah alias Asrar, a resident of Pakistan, police added. One army soldier was also injured in the encounter which ended on Monday morning with the recovery of bodies of all the militants, police officials added. “Pandit was involved in the killing of three policemen, two councillors and two civilians recently apart from several other terror-related crimes,” Kashmir inspector general (IG), Vijay Kumar said.
SRINAGAR: Three top Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) commanders were killed and one soldier was injured during a night-long operation in north Kashmir’s Sopore village on Sunday, police said on Monday.
On Sunday night, security forces launched an operation at Tantraypora Brath village following a tip-off about presence of terrorists in a house, police said. After an encounter, three terrorists were killed including Mudasir Pandit, the top LeT terrorist and a foreigner, Abdullah alias Asrar, a resident of Pakistan, police added.
One army soldier was also injured in the encounter which ended on Monday morning with the recovery of bodies of all the militants, police officials added.
“Pandit was involved in the killing of three policemen, two councillors and two civilians recently apart from several other terror-related crimes,” said inspector general, Vijay Kumar.
Director general of police, J&K, Dilbagh Singh said that the operation wasn’t only a big success but an important one. “The operation was being monitored by top police and army officers as three important commanders were in the house where the operation was underway.” Singh said that there were 18 militancyrelated cases registered against Mudasir Pandit and the foreigner commander Abdullah alias Asrar was his very close associate since long time and the third terrorist, Khursheed Mir, a Sopore resident, had six cases registered against him.
Kumar said that two AK 47 rifles, an AK 56 rifle, 9 mm Pistol, 77 AK ammunition rounds, 21 Pistol ammunition, nine AK Magazines, three pistol magazines, one hand grenade, three ammunition pouches and two Matrix sheets were recovered from possession of the slain militants. Following the attack on police in Sopore on June 12 in which two policemen and two civilians were killed, joint teams of army, J&K police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were conducting joint operations in the vicinity of Sopore. Earlier, on 29 March, terrorists killed two councillors and a policeman in an attack on the office of Sopore Municipal Council office.
Police had said LeT was responsible for the attacks after which, the IG met senior army and CRPF officers in Sopore and said that Mudasir Pandit was one of the two local terrorists involved in the June 12 attack.
Police had circulated pictures of these militants in Sopore and adjacent villages. IG Kumar said that circulation of militant pictures helped the forces to track them down.