Srinagar: Police on Saturday claimed to have killed two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, including the outfit’s commander in an encounter in Pampore town of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
LeT commander Umar Mushtaq Khandey and his associate Shahid Khursheed from Chanapora here, were killed by government forces in a gunfight that broke out Saturday morning in Drangbal locality of saffron town, a police spokesperson said.
Giving details of the operation, he said, police, army’s 50 RR and the personnel of CRPF 110 battalion during the intervening night of October 15-16, launched a joint cordon and search operation (CASO) in Drangbal, Pampore on the basis of specific input regarding the presence of militants in the locality.
During the search operation, he said, the militants were given the opportunity to surrender once their presence got ascertained.
“Instead they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter,” the police spokesperson said.
He identified the duo as Umer Mushtaq Khandey and Shahid Khurshid associated with LeT.
As per police records, the spokesperson said that both the killed militants were collaborators in recent killings in Srinagar City and were also involved in several other “terror crimes”.
Khandey, he said, was also involved in the killing of policemen Mohammad Yousuf and Suhail Ahmad in Baghat area of Srinagar and figured among the list of top 10 most wanted militants.
“He was also responsible for creating terror among the locals and had been coercing innocent citizens to sympathise with anti-national elements,” he added.
The police spokesperson further claimed that incriminating materials including arms & ammunition were also recovered from the site of encounter. He said all the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.
“Police has registered a case under relevant sections of law and started investigation in to the matter. People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any,” he added.
The police spokesperson quoted IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar congratulating the joint teams working with great synergy and coordination on the ground for carrying out successful operations in professional manner without any collateral damage.
“IGP Kashmir said that, post recent civilian killings in City Srinagar terrorists Shahid Khurshid along with Shahid Bashir shifted to district Pulwama while as their other associate Mukhtar Shah shifted to district Shopian and all the three terrorists stands eliminated,” he said.
Kumar, he said, also stated that police is committed to hunt down all the militants who try to create fear among masses and spread mischief & tumult in the valley and such elements & their names should be excised from society.
As per the police spokesperson, Kumar said that post recent civilian killings, so far 13 militants have been eliminated in 9 different operations including 3 out of 5 militants of Srinagar City who were killed within less than 24hrs.
“He also said that, as of now only two terrorists of Srinagar City namely Mehran & Wasim are active and all efforts are on to nab them,” he added.
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