Terrorist killed in Kupwara encounter identified as Pakistani; recruited local Kashmiri youths for terror outfits

ANI photo

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Police identified another militant killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on Wednesday (August 19), in which a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander was also gunned down, as a Pakistani ultra named Ali Bhai alias Danish.

A police spokesperson told PTI that Ali Bhai was instrumental in receiving members of various infiltrating terror groups and was also involved in recruiting local youngsters for militant outfits. He added that Ali Bhai, along with Sajjad alias Haider, who was killed earlier this week, was involved in several terror attacks on security forces and security establishments.

On August 19, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar said one of the two slain militants was LeT commander Naseer-ud-din Lone alias Saad Bhai, who was involved in the killing of three CRPF jawans in Sopore on April 18 and three more jawans of the paramilitary force in Handwara on May 4.

The IGP said an AK-47 rifle, which was snatched from a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan after the attack at Handwara's Vangam on May 4, was recovered from Lone.

The encounter in the Ganipora Kralgund area of Handwara in north Kashmir's Kupwara district started after security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. This was the second such operation on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, security forces killed two militants in south Kashmir's Shopian district.

As the presence of the militants was established during the search operation, they were given an opportunity to surrender. However, they fired indiscriminately on the joint search party, which was retaliated, leading to the encounter, the spokesperson said.

Security forces have so far killed at least 150 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir this year. A total of 26 top commanders of various terror outfits, including Lashkar and Jaish, have been neutralised since January this year. In the last three days, four top commanders have been killed in two separate encounters — in Kupwara and Baramulla in Kashmir.