Top LeT militant killed in Sopore; arms, ammunition recovered

Fayaz Bukhari

Srinagar, Jan 14: A top Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant was today killed in a fierce gun battle in Sopore town of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Police and Army launched a joint operation at around 11.30 pm last night in Sofi Hamam Chankhan area of Sopore town after it received inputs about presence of one foreign militant in the house of one Riyaz Ahmad Kawa.
Reports said that the militant had entered the house of Kawa at around 9.30 pm and a joint operation was conducted by Army’s 52 RR, 177 battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to flush him out.
The troops tightened the cordon around the locality during the night and early hours of the day before rescuing the civilians in the morning from the area. At around 8 am troops fired towards the house where militant was hiding but he didn’t respond for long time. “And finally, he responded in the afternoon and security forces also fired leading to an encounter which last for several hours during which one militant was killed”, said sources.
A Defence spokesman said here that based on specific intelligence about presence of militants in Sofi Hamam Chankhan area of the Sopore town, a joint operation was launched today by Rashtriya   Rifles units of Army and the SOG, resulting into killing of one militant and recovery of one AK 47 rifle, ammunition and the other war like stores.
“Inputs about the presence of terrorist in the Sopore area was received by the Rashtriya Rifles unit on January 13, 2015 late afternoon. Rashtriya Rifles, unit along with the SOG launched the operations on the intervening night of 13/14 January 2015. The area was effectively cordoned preventing escape of terrorist. As the noose was tightened in the morning hours today, the militant hiding in the build up area opened heavy volume of fire. Thus, the contact was established at about 1 pm today, resulting into killing   of the terrorist and recovery of one AK 47 rifle, 3 magazines, 89 rounds of ammunition, one UBGL, three UBGL rounds and other war like stores.  The identity of the terrorist has been established as Abu Sufiyaz of LeT”, the spokesman said.
Lt Gen Subrata Saha, the Chinar Corps Commander commended the Rashtriya Rifles and SOG personnel from Sopore who were part of the operation.
A police spokesman in the meantime said that an unidentified militant was killed in an encounter with police and security forces today at Chankhan, Sopore.
“On a specific information, Sopore police along with 52 RR and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation at Sofi Hamam, Chankhan in jurisdiction of Police Station Tarzoo, Sopore. During the searches, militant fired upon the joint search party triggering an encounter. One unidentified militant was killed in the encounter that lasted this afternoon. One AK rifle, 3 magazines, 89 rounds of AK ammunition, a UBGL, 3 UBGL grenades and a hand grenade was recovered from the slain militant”, the spokesman said.

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