Security personnel during a Cordon and Search Operation.
Credit: PTI Photo
Two Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, one of whom was involved in the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit earlier this year, were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.
The gunfight erupted after security forces launched a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in Alshipora village of Shopian following ‘specific’ inputs about the presence of militants there.
As the search party approached the suspected spot, the hiding militants opened fire, which was retaliated by the security forces, in which two ultras were killed, reports said.
The slain terrorists were identified as Morifat Maqbool and Jazim Farooq, alias Abrar, of LeT.
Additional Director General Police (ADGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said that Abrar was involved in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit Sanjay Sharma, who was working as ATM guard in J&K Bank. Sharma was killed in February outside his house in the Achan area of Pulwama.
After a lull, south Kashmir has witnessed several encounters in recent times. On September 13, two army officers, one police officer and a soldier were killed in an operation against the militants in Gadole forest area of Kokernag in Anantnag.
The operation lasted seven days and was concluded after the killing of two militants, including Uzair Khan of LeT.
A senior police officer said that after the decline in recruitment of locals into militancy in the first half of this year, there has been a gradual increase in local recruitment in south Kashmir.
“Several youths have gone missing in south Kashmir and they must have joined terror organizations. Besides, some foreign terrorists have also been able to infiltrate and they are operating in forest areas of Anantnag-Kulgam-Shopian districts,” he said.