Jammu: Two Pakistani militants of
Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit, including a self-styled
divisional commander, were killed and an Special Police
Officer (SPO) laid down his life in a fierce gunbattle with
Army and Police in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir today.
Acting on intelligence inputs, troops of 26 Rashtriya
Rifles (RR) and police launched a cordon and search operation
in Thatri forest area, 200 km from here, Brigadier General
Staff (BGS), 16 Corps, Gurdeep Singh said.
As the troops were heading towards the hideout,
militants bursted grenades and opened indiscriminate firing on
the operation party, he said adding in the three hour long
encounter, two top Pakistani militants were killed.
One SPO Barkat Ali was critically injured in the
encounter and died when he was flown to Jammu for specialised
treatment. He was declared brought dead at Government Medical
College (GMC) hospital.
The killed militants have been identified as Abu Ans,
self-styled divisional commander of LeT, Chenab region and Abu
Maz, district commander LeT, Doda. Both belong to Pakistan.
Two AK rifles and ammunition was recovered from the
site of encounter, they said adding search operation is
going on till late evening.
"It is biggest success of the army and police in the
region as these two Pak commanders had escaped during
encounter several times in past over one year", he said.
Abu Ans and Maz were active in the belt for the past
10 years, he said adding they were involved in the killing of
several SPOs, Civilians and jawans besides engineered blasts
targetting security forces in the belt.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 20:55