Srinagar: Three local militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), including the district commander were killed in a gun-battle with government forces in Achabal area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, police said Saturday.
“Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in Kwarigam, Ranipora area of the South Kashmir district following inputs about the presence of terrorists there”, a police official said.
While the forces were conducting searches in the area the militants fired upon them. The forces retaliated leading to an exchange of fire in which three militants were killed, the official said.
One of the slain militants has been identified as Arif Hazam belonging to the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), he said, adding Hazam was involved in the killing of Territorial Armyman Havaldar Manzoor Beigh in June 2019.
Pertinently, the killing of three local militants has taken the number of militants dead in gunfights with government forces this week to eight. On July 8, four local militants were killed by state forces in two separate encounters in south Kashmir’s Pulwama and Kulgam districts. The four slain militants, as per police were associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Al-Badr outfits and were part of groups involved in various militancy related incidents.
A day earlier on July 7, police had claimed to have killed Mehraj-ud-din Halwai, a longest surviving Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander in an encounter in Kralgund area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.