Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Dec 12: The Commander in Chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Fahadullah, today gave slip to the security forces in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district this morning. Police and Army have launched a massive operation to trace him out.
The Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Sopore and 27 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) of counter insurgency Kilo Force of Army this morning trapped the most wanted militant commander, Fahadullah, along with this three associates in village Benlipora, Aloosa in Bandipora this morning.
The LeT chief and his three associates were hiding in the house of one Mohammad Shafi, Sarpanch of the village, for the night and security forces launched an operation early in the morning.
Sources said that on seeing the security cordon around them, the LeT chief and his associates opened fire on the troops resulting in an encounter. But he along with his associates fled from the house towards the orchards under the cover of dense fog.
Police and Army immediately sealed the entire area and launched a massive operation against the most wanted militant commander in Kashmir valley and his associates.
Sources said that police received the information about the presence of Fahadullah in the village during the night and launched the operation early in the morning and at around 7:30 a.m. they established contact with him.
More troops have been rushed to the area as the police and Army are not taking any chance of letting the LeT Chief to flee from the area. It is not yet clear whether Fahadullah and his men have fled from the area or are still trapped in the security cordon that was laid after the encounter and extended to the nearby forests.
Fahadullah is the most wanted militant commander who is mostly operating from North Kashmir’s Sopore area for past 5 years. He infiltrated into Kashmir valley in 2007 and graduated to the LeT chief as the successive chiefs were killed over the years. He was injured in 2009 during an encounter in Sopore’s Badam Bagh area.
Fahadullah succeeded Abdullah Uni, the most wanted militant commander of LeT who had fled from security cordons dozens of times. Uni was killed by Police and Army during an operation in Sopore town last year.
This is for the second time since past one month that security forces have trapped chief of any militant organization in Kashmir. Last month Army and police had trapped chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Qari Yasir, along with several top leadership of the outfit in Lolab forests in the frontier district of Kupwara.
Two among the 7-8 trapped militants of the group were injured during the encounter but security forces could not trace them even as they were brought to village Dever for treatment.
The operation lasted around 10 days but police and Army had to call it off after they failed to trace out the militant group with whom they had established contact soon after launching the operation.
In the meantime, after fresh snowfall in the hills of North Kashmir, Army and Police are having a close look at the militant movements in the villages near the forests. Sources said that with fresh snowfall security forces have information that the militants might come out of their forest hideouts and take shelter in nearby villages.
Sources said that the Army and police are laying ambushes near the forests to trap the militant who are making movement at this time of the year when they come towards the residential areas for shelter.
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