With the killing of two more terrorists in the Danmar area of Srinagar city on Friday, security forces have neutralised 78 terrorists during the last six months, of which 39 belong to Lashkar-e-Toiba. The remaining belong to groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Al-Badr, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Gazwatul Hind.
LeT has been the worst hit as some of its top commanders have been killed in encounters in the last few weeks. Just three days back Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Huraira and two other terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama district of South Kashmir. On June 29, Top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Nadeem Abrar and a Pakistani terrorist were killed in an encounter with security forces at Malhoora in Srinagar’s Parimpora.
Another top commander of LeT Mudasir was killed in an encounter in Sopore on June 21 last month. Along with Mudasir, two more militants were also eliminated.
In a pre-dawn operation in Srinagar city on Friday, security forces cordoned off the Alamdar Colony Danmar area of downtown Eidgah following specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in a particular house.
Police said that during the search operation as the presence of terrorists got ascertained, they were given repeated opportunities to surrender, however they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter in the wee hours.
In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter. They were later identified as Irfan Ahmad Sofi son of Nazir Ahmad Sofi and Bilal Ahmad Bhat son of Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, both residents of Natipora. Police claimed both were active since December 2020, and were part of The Resistance Front (TRF).
However, recently, TRF shared a post on social media mentioning that Irfan and Bilal had left TRF and joined ISJK.
As per police records, both were part of groups involved in several cases including attacks on Police and SFs and civilian atrocities. Police said that both the killed terrorists executed a series of attacks on policemen, SFs and civilians which include killing of PSO of PDP leader at Natipora on December 14, 2020, attack on ROP of CRPF 73BN in Lawaypora resulting in death of two CRPF Jawans on 25 March this year. Moreover, on 17 June last month, they shot dead an on-leave police constable Javid Ahmad near his residence at Saidpora which was followed by the killing of Inspector Parvez Ahmad at Menganwari Nowgam while he was on his way to offer prayers in local Masjid on the evening of June 22. They were also involved in the killing of a civilian Umer Nazir Bhat at his shop in Main Chowk Habba Kadal the very next day, police officials told The Daily Guardian.
Police claimed that they were also involved in a series of grenade attacks as well as petrol bomb attacks on Police and security forces in Srinagar.
On May 5, 2021, they carried out a grenade attack on a joint party of Police and CRPF at Nawabazar area of Srinagar in which 05 CRPF jawans and a civilian got injured.
On 26 June, 2021, they carried out another grenade attack on a joint party of Police and CRPF at Barbarshah in which 1 civilian got killed and 3 civilians got critically injured. They also carried out a grenade attack on PP Urdu Bazar on 5 March 2021 and petrol bomb attack on a bunker of SSB at Mehjoor Nagar Band on 26/04/2021.
Police also claimed that both the killed militants have been instrumental in motivating and recruiting the youth to join terror folds in Srinagar and its adjoining areas.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including 01 AK-47 rifle, 01 pistol and 04 grenades were recovered from the site of encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes.
IGP Kashmir congratulated the joint forces of Police and CRPF for the big success that led to the elimination of the two most wanted militants who were wanted by the law for their involvement in several cases.