Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, June 10: A commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was killed and two police men of Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police were injured in a gun battle that raged tonight after militants fired at an SOG party in South Kashmir district of Pulwama.
The Deputy Inspector General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, range South Kashmir, Vijay Kumar told Excelsior that militants tonight fired at a patrol party of the SOG of Litter Pulwama at village Nellora injuring two SOG men.
The DIG who rushed to the spot and was monitoring the operation said that the SOG men comprising around 10 personnel fired back and engaged the militants in an encounter killing one militant. “Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and police rushed to the spot and another militant has been trapped inside the cordon. The search of the village will be conducted in the morning”, he said.
The injured SOG men have been identified as Selection Grade Constable Mohammad Ashraf of 14th Battalion Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police and a Special Police Officer (SPO) Arif Maqbool. Ashraf received a bullet in thigh and Arif in arm. They were rushed to District hospital Pulwama for treatment and were shifted to Srinagar’s Bone and Joints Hospital where condition of them is stated to be stable.
The dead militant has been identified as District Commander of LeT for Shopian district, Ashiq Hussain Lone of Haff Shermal of South Kashmir district of Shopian. One AK-47 rifle was recovered from his possession.
The DIG described the killing of Lone as a big success for security forces after the killing of Divisional Commander for South Kashmir and District Commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad for Shopian district by security forces last week.
In the meantime, Army has launched a massive operation in Uri sector of North Kashmir near the Line of Control (LoC) after a group of militants was spotted deep inside the Indian Territory. Security forces have launched another operation in Tral area of South Kashmir against militants, who killed 4 Army men last month.
Police sources said that 18-Dogra of Army launched a massive operation in Girja Gali and Mori Beg Behak areas of Lacchipora in Uri sector of North Kashmir along the LoC on June 7 after inputs of presence of a militant group in the area.
Sources said that it is not clear whether the militant group has recently infiltrated or was in the area to receive a new group. A police party from Police Station Bijhama in district Baramulla rushed to the area. However, they returned in the afternoon as the area where the operation was launched is inaccessible.
However, Army didn’t confirm any operation in the area and said that Army along the LoC is on high alert to foil infiltration of militants into Kashmir valley.
It may be mentioned here that Army along the LoC in Kashmir is on high alert after inputs that large number of militants are trying to infiltrate into Kashmir to fill the void created after security forces eliminated the top leadership of militants for last 2 years.
Early this month Army foiled a major infiltration bid by killing 3 militants in Nowgam sector of Handwara in district Kupwara. The infiltration bid was foiled after ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the sector.
Meanwhile, Army and police launched a search operation in Tral area of South Kashmir to hunt the militants who killed four Army personnel last month.
Army’s 3 and 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police cordoned off Dadasara and Kuchmulla areas of South Kashmir’s Tral area yesterday afternoon. The operation continued through out the night.
Security forces conducted house to house searches to nab the militants who killed 4 Army personnel on May 24 in Bicchu village of Tral. Army also killed a militant after they launched an operation against the killers of the 4 Army jawans on May 24.
Army was also looking for the weapons that were snatched by the militants from the Army men after killing them. However, no one was arrested during the operation by the security forces.
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