Srinagar: Two Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants including a top commander were killed on Sunday in an encounter that erupted at Bhishembar Nagar area of Srinagar city on Sunday. Based on a specific input generated by Srinagar Police regarding presence of terrorists in Bhishembar Nagar area of Srinagar, a cordon and search operation was launched by Srinagar Police and Valley Quick Action Team (QAT) CRPF in the area around 10.50 am, a police spokesman said.
“During the search operation, as the joint search party proceeded towards suspect spot the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon search parties which was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the initial exchange of fire, one terrorist was killed”, he said. Keeping in view the tourist movement and huge rush in the area, Police and CRPF exercised maximum restraint and carried out operation in professional manner to avoid any civilian causality, he said.
During the course of evacuation of civilians, the trapped terrorist hurled a grenade resulting in minor splinter injuries to 3 Police and CRPF Jawans who were shifted to hospital for treatment. In the meantime, the operation was resumed and in the ensuing encounter, another hiding terrorist was killed and bodies of both the killed terrorists were recovered from the site of encounter, he said.
"Both the killed terrorists were Pakistani and identified as Mohammad Bhai alias Abu Qasim, alias Mir Shoaib alias Mudassir and Abu Arsalan alias Khalid alias Aadil”, he said. As per police records, both the killed “terrorists were 'A' categorized and linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT”, he said He said, Mohammad Bhai was active since the year 2019 while Abu Arsalan was active since the year 2021 in Central Kashmir. “Both the killed terrorist had a history of terror crime cases including pistol-borne attacks and grenade throwing incidents.
They were also allegedly involved in an attack on CRPF personnel on April 4 in Maisuma area in which one CRPF Jawan attained martyrdom and another got injured", he said. Both the killed terrorists were carrying fake Aadhaar cards to conceal their identity, the police spokesman added. Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.
A case under relevant sections of law has been registered and investigation has been initiated. “People are requested to cooperate with Police till the area at the encounter site is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials, if any”, he added. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar congratulated the joint teams of Police and CRPF for conducting the operation in professional manner and neutralizing the wanted terrorists within shortest possible time.
IGP Kashmir also said that this operation is one of the best examples of how investigation of a terror crime case leads to an anti-terrorist operation and surely a big success for Srinagar Police. He also said that the terrorists involved in killing of civilian, police, security forces or any other terror crimes shall be tracked down and neutralized on priority.
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