2 Lashkar militants killed in encounter
Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, police said.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Okay village of Kulgam district which turned into an encounter, a police official said.
Two ultras were killed in the exchange of firing with the security forces, the official said.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said the slain duo were locals and affiliated with the LeT. He said they were involved in several terror crimes.
A police spokesman in a statement said that as per police records, the killed militant Amir Ahmad was a categorized militant linked with LeT (TRF), however the other killed had militant joined militant folds recently. Both the killed militants were part of a group involved in several cases.
He said that arms and ammunition including 01 AK-47, 01 pistol were recovered from the possession of slain militants. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.
It is pertinent to mention here that the year 2022 has started with encounters in Kashmir as the first four days of the New Year have recorded a gunfight everyday resulting in the killing of five militants including top Lashkar-e-Toiba commander.
As per figures, out of four gun-battles, Srinagar district witnessed two encounters in a span of just one hour while as Kupwara district in North Kashmir recorded one encounter and Kulgam district in South Kashmir also saw one encounter.
“On January 01, a non-local militant was killed in Keran sector of Kupwara district who was later identified by police as Muhammad Shabir Malik, a Pakistani national,” the figures reads, adding that “On January 03, LeT commander Saleem Parry of Hajin Bandipora who was active since 2016 was killed in Shalimar Srinagar.
Officials said that with Parry’s killing, Hajin hamlet of Bandipora is now militancy free as no local militant from the area is active now.
The figures state that just an hour after killing of top Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Muhammad Saleem Parray, another encounter broke out in Gusu area of Shalimar in which one non-local militant was killed.
“On 04 January, two militants namely Amir Ahmad Wani from Alamgunj Shopian and Sameer Ahmad khan from Tiken Pulwama were killed in Okay area of Kulgam,” the data reads.
Pertinently, 182 militants were killed in J&K in the year 2021 which includes 168 in Kashmir division. In the year-ender press conference in Srinagar, Inspector General of Police (IGP ) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that for the first time the number of active militants has come down to less than 200. He stated that 83 foreign militants were active in Kashmir and the number of locals was almost equal.
