The security forces gunned down a Pakistani terrorist in the Harwan area of Srinagar on Sunday. As per a statement issued by the Jammu and Kashmir police, the terrorist was identified as Saifulla alias Abu Khalid, who was affiliated with the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and was a resident of Karachi, Sindh province in Pakistan.
Local media quoted Vijay Kumar, the Inspector-General of Kashmir Police (IGP), as saying: “The slain terrorist had infiltrated India back in 2016 and was through all these years active in the area of Harwan. He had also been involved in several terrorism-related crimes.”
The local media had earlier reported that an encounter broke out in the Harwan area of Srinagar and security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the adjoining localities also. While police claimed that they had received specific intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists in the area and when they started searching homes, the slain terrorist opened fire.
In the recent past, three terrorists have been killed in the Srinagar, which is a new thing as previously the main focus area of the terrorists was South Kashmir. Vijay Kumar, the inspector-general of Kashmir Police (IGP), said: “About three Pakistani terrorists were killed within Srinagar city limits in 33 days. They were involved in several terror crimes including attacks on police, security forces, and also connected with civilian killings.”
Since the past few weeks, the security forces have tracked and eliminate many militants all across the valley, like earlier this week, a terrorist was killed in a similar encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama area. Last week, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist was also eliminated in the same area. Observers and security experts argue that since the revocation of Article 370, Pakistan is trying hard to push the militancy in Kashmir like the 1990s and is transporting militants from all across Pakistan in the valley.