SRINAGAR Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt who escaped from custody in February was killed in a gunfight in central Kashmirs Budgam district on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Jatt, who police claimed was an associate of 26/11 militant Ajmal Kasab, was killed along with associate at Chattergam village in central Kashmir’s Budgam area, officials said.
Jatt had escaped from the police and government forces at least six times after he escaped from SMHS hospital where he was taken for medical attention in February this year.
The LeT militant was a Pakistani national and due process would be followed, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said.
“We’ll be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body,” Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh told reporters.
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Jatt, alias Hanzalla, was trapped in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the police along with army and paramilitary CRPF cordoned off a house at Kuthpora Chattergam area of Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said.
A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at government forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jatt’s killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the militants moved from one house to another.
“It was swift operation carried out by security forces. We finally got the prize catch Naveed Jatt, who was a Pakistani national,” Singh said.
“He has managed to give us the slip in six different encounters but today our boys managed to pin him down,” the DGP added.
Jatt who was known as a commander of the LeT had staged a dramatic escape from a government hospital in Srinagar in February this year.
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Jatt was wanted for his complicity in a series of crimes, including the killing of noted journalist Shujaat Bukhari in June, attacks on security establishments , police said.
Police claimed that according to disclosures he made earlier when he was arrested in 2014, Jatt alias Abu Hanzalla, was born in Multan in Pakistan and was part of Kasab’s group at a madrassa in the neighbouring country where he had undergone arms training.
The militant had undergone intensive training and was good in handling equipment like compasses, GPS, wireless sets and mobile phones installed with Skype software, an official said.
Jatt and his associates crossed over into Kashmir Valley in October 2012, state police records.
The 21-year-old was involved in multiple militant strikes, including an attack on the Army in Hyderpora in Srinagar, an attack on the Silver Star hotel along the national highway outside the city and three attacks on police and CRPF camps in south Kashmir, police said.
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He was involved in the killing of an ASI in Pulwama on May 2013, a series of grenade attacks on government forces and the killing of CRPF personnel at Awneera Shopian in August 2013, officials said.
Besides, he was also involved in conspiring and executing several bank robberies and attacks in south Kashmir including an attack on a court complex in Pulwama on March 2014 in which two policemen were killed and the strike against a polling party in Shopian the following month in which a presiding official, Zai-ul-Haq Wani, was killed and several civilians.
The “most wanted” militant was also believed to be involved in an attack on a police team in Bongam Shopian on June 2014 in which several civilians and policemen were injured.
Protest In KU, IUST
Protests erupted in Kashmir University, IUST Awantipora and GDC Bemina over killing of two militants including top Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in a gun battle in Budgam on Wednesday.
Scores of Kashmir University students a massive protest demonstration in the varsity campus and marched through the varsity campus while raising pro freedom slogans.
The students, reports said, also held funeral prayers in absentia for the slain militant commander.
Scores of students of Government Bemina Degree College and IUST Awantipora as well held protest demonstration against the killings.
Witnesses said that the students of GDC Bemina raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans and marched through the campus and onto the main road.
The students also pelted stones on the forces. However, the witnesses said, the government forces did not retaliate to the protesting students before they went back to the campus raising slogans.
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