Srinagar: Two terrorists of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), including a self-styled ‘commander’ who had been operating for the longest period, were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, officials said Monday.
They said the anti-terror operation started at 11.45 PM on Sunday when police along with the army and paramilitary forces laid a cordon around a house in the Nihama area of Pulwama district following intelligence input about the presence of terrorists there.
“The encounter with the two holed-up terrorists started at 7 AM on Monday after the duo identified as Riyaz Ahmad Dar of Sethargund Kakapora, and Rayees Ahmad Dar of Larve Kakapora, refused to surrender,” they said.
During the operation, which was overseen by Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Kashmir) Altaf Khan, precaution was adopted to ensure that there was no collateral damage or any harm to any civilian life, they said.
The firing intensified in the afternoon following which the house in which the two terrorists were holed up caught fire.
The operation was called off at 4 PM after the recovery of the bodies of two terrorists.
Riyaz Dar had joined the Lashker-e-Taiba in 2014 and had closely worked with slain Pakistani terrorists Abu Dujana and Abu Ismail. He had participated in many terror-related activities, police said.
While Riyaz, designated as an A++ terrorist, carried a cash reward of above Rs 10 lakh, Rayees Dar was categorised as ‘A’ carrying a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh, they added.
Inspector General of Police V K GP Birdi termed the killings as a “significant development towards achieving a terrorism-free Jammu and Kashmir.”
An official said that the Kakapora hamlet in Pulwama was “once a hotbed of terrorism, particularly associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but today with the elimination of these two active terrorists, the area of Kakapora no longer has any active terrorists.”
Today’s was the second anti-terror operation in south Kashmir in less than four weeks.
On May 7, the police achieved a major success after they gunned down Basit Dar, self-styled commander of the banned The Resistance Front (TRF) terror group, a shadow group of Lashker-e-Taiba.
He and another terrorist, Momeen, were killed in an encounter in Kulgam’s Redwani village. Both were involved in 18 terror-related cases which included targeting of minorities and police personnel. (With inputs from PTI & KNO)
