One Lashkar-e-Taiba Commander, a Pakistani national, along with two other LeT militants were gunned down by a joint team of security forces in Pulwama on 14th July.
Troops from Panzgam of the Pulwama based Rashtriya Rifles battalion, the J&K police and the CRPF launched an operation at 11:55 PM 13 July, upon receiving specific intelligence from the Jammu and Kashmir Police about the presence of terrorists in the built-up area of New Colony, Hospital road area of Pulwama.
According to a press release by the defence spokesperson, at 01:20 AM on 14th July, the Indian troops were laying cordon when the terrorists opened fire on the troops and tried to escape to the advantage of the darkness. Alert troops responded with immediate retaliation which led to the fleeing terrorists getting trapped in a house.
“A call for surrender was given, but the terrorist continued firing indiscriminately and a firefight ensued,” read the press release. After an eight hour long operation, the three terrorists were confirmed to be dead and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter.
According to the J&K Police, the bodies belonged to LeT commander Aijaz alias Abu Huraira- resident of Pakistan, Javeed Ahmad Rather son of Abdul Ganie Rather- resident of Tahab Pulwama and Shahnawaz Nazir Ganie son of Nazir Ahmad Ganie- resident of Samboora, Awantipora.
As per police records, the three terrorists had several terror crime cases registered against them. The three were part of a group involved in various terror crimes, especially the killed foreign terrorist Aijaz who had a history of terror crime cases and was instrumental in recruiting innocent youth into terror folds. Aijaz was responsible for planning and executing several terror attacks in the area, including attacks on Police and security establishments.
According to the J&K police, incriminating materials, arms and ammunition, including 2 AK rifles and a pistol were recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes.
“These notorious terrorists were involved in many Anti-National activities and were involved in recruitment processes in South Kashmir. Neutralization of the three terrorists will go a long way in bringing peace in Pulwama district and alleviate civilians of their sufferings and hardships at the hand of these notorious terrorists,” the press release by defence PRO, Srinagar said.
As per inputs by the J&K Police, the civilians were evacuated to safer places during the search operation. IGP Kashmir congratulated Police & security forces for conducting successful operations without any collateral damage.
As reported previously by Frontier India, two terror networks were taken down by security forces in Srinagar and Uttar Pradesh this week.