Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, including the one allegedly involved in the recent killing of a bank manager, were on Wednesday killed in an encounter with government forces in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, police said.
Acting on specific information regarding the presence of militants in Shopian’s Kanji Ullar village, a cordon-and-search operation was launched by government forces in the area, according to a police spokesperson.
During the search operation, as the forces approached the suspected spot, the militants fired indiscriminately on them, which was retaliated effectively, the spokesperson said.
In the ensuing encounter, two militants were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the encounter site. They were identified as Jan Mohammad Lone, a resident of Braripora in Shopian, and Tufail Nazir Ganie, a resident of Ramnagri in Shopian, the spokesperson said.
He added that according to police records, the slain militants were linked with LeT militant outfit and were part of groups involved in several militancy related crime cases, including attacks on police and other security forces and civilian atrocities.
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar said Lone was involved in the killing of bank manager Vijay Kumar in Kulgam on June 2. He also revealed that Lone was earlier working as an overground worker (OGW) for LeT district commander Adil Ramzan and had killed the bank manager on the latter’s directions.
“After this militancy linked crime, he actively joined the militant ranks and we have been tracking him ever since. Ganie had earlier escaped from two encounters in Kulgam’s Chaki Samad area on April 9 and Khur-Batpora area on April 11,” Kumar said.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle and a pistol, were recovered from the encounter site. All the recovered materials have been taken into the case records for further investigation, the spokesperson said.
He said Kumar congratulated the joint teams for carrying out the anti-militancy operation in a professional manner and without any collateral damage. He also appreciated the efforts of the police in tracking down and killing the militant involved in the bank manager’s killing.
