LeT terrorist, who killed UP labourer, among two gunned down in Shopian encounter, search ops on

Confirming the development, J&K Police said, `One of the two terrorists killed in the encounter has been identified as Adil Ah Wani. He has been active since July 2020. He was involved in the killing of one poor labourer at Litter, Pulwama.``

SRINAGAR: The security forces on Wednesday gunned down two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, including the one who killed a poor carpenter from the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian.

Three security personnel were also injured in the Shopian encounter, the officials said.

Confirming the development, J&K Police in a tweet said, “One of the two terrorists killed in the encounter has been identified as Adil Ah Wani. He has been active since July 2020. He was involved in the killing of one poor labourer at Litter, Pulwama.’’

“Search operation is underway,” the J&K Police added. “So far, 15 terrorists have been neutralised in the past two weeks,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said while addressing a press conference. 

IGP Vijay Kumar also informed that Adil Wani was district commander (Shopian) of proscribed terror outfit LeT. The security forces had earlier launched a cordon and search operation in Dragad area of Shopian district following information about the presence of some terrorists. 

Giving details of the encounter, officials said security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Dragad area of Shopian district following information about the presence of some terrorists there. The search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists opened fire on the security forces which retaliated.

The officials said two ultras of The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been killed while three security force personnel sustained injuries in the operation.

In a tweet, IGP, Kashmir zone, Vijay Kumar, said, “One of the killed #terrorists has been #identified as Adil Ah Wani, active since 7/2020… So far, 15 terrorists have been #neutralised in 2 weeks”. 

“Killed #terrorist Adil Wani was #involved in #killing of a poor carpenter namely Sakir Ah Wani S/O Gulam Kadir Wani R/O Saharanpur UP. Adil Wani was District Commander Shopian of proscribed #terror outfit LeT(TRF),” Kumar tweeted. 

However, in another tweet, the Kashmir Zone Police clarified that the name of the carpenter was Sageer Ahmad Ansari. "Kindly read, Sageer Ahmad Ansari S/O Bindo Hussain Ansari R/O Saharanpur, UP. Inconvenience regretted.@JmuKmrPolice," it said in the tweet.

Ansari was gunned down on Saturday in a south Kashmir village where he had been working as a carpenter for the last couple of years. Kashmir has witnessed a spate of targeted civilian killings that has triggered an exodus of migrant labourers who are queuing up outside bus and train stations to return home.