A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander involved in the killing of two police personnel in Srinagar has been trapped in the ongoing encounter between terrorists and security forces at the Drangbal area of Pampore in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday, officials said.
“LeT commander among top 10 terrorists namely Umar Mustaq Khandey who was involved in the killing of two police personnel at Baghat Srinagar and other terror crimes trapped in Pampore Encounter,” police tweeted quoting IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar.
The firefight between terrorists and security forces took place after a joint team of the police and the army cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about the presence of terrorists.
As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.
Meanwhile, in another operation conducted by the Srinagar police in Bemina on Friday night, two terrorists, Shahid Bashir Sheikh and Tanzil Ahmad were neutralized by the forces.
“Terrorists Shahid and Tanzil of Srinagar city who were collaborators in recent civilian killings of one chemist (Bindroo) and 2 teachers (Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chand) in Srinagar, neutralised today in 2 anti-terrorists ops,” stated IGP Kashmir.
On 5 October, three civilians, including a prominent local businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo, were reportedly killed by militants.
“These recent incidents of targeting civilians are to create an atmosphere of fear, communal disharmony here. This is a conspiracy to target the local ethos and defame local Kashmiri Muslims. This is being done on instructions from agencies in Pak,” Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh had been quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Over 700 people have been detained in the last week by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in the wake of the recent killing of seven civilians in the Union territory.
(With inputs from agencies)