Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have “wiped out” the terrorist group that attacked pilgrims on the Amarnath Yatra in July, Director General of Police SP Vaid said on Tuesday.
On Twitter, he said they had recovered the body of a third terrorist killed in Monday’s encounter in Qazigund in South Kashmir. He was recognised as local resident Yawar. A fourth terrorist was “caught alive in an injured condition”, Vaid said.
“With the elimination of Abu Ismail earlier and now these three, Abu Mavia, Furkan and Yawar, the group that attacked Amarnath Yatris is wiped out,” the DGP said.
On July 10, eight Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 15 injured after militants attacked a bus carrying at least 56 passengers in Botengo village near Anantnag on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. In September, security forces said they had killed militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba’s commander Abu Ismail, who is believed to have planned the attack.
The fourth militant involved in the Qazigund encounter was arrested from a maternity hospital in Anantnag hours after he fled the site of the shootout on Monday afternoon.
The encounter broke out after the militants opened fire on an Army convoy on its way to Srinagar on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. Security forces had cordoned off the area and launched a hunt for the militants. The search operation then turned into an encounter, which ended at 2 am on Tuesday.
One soldier was killed in the attack and another sustained injuries.
The militants killed in the gunfight were identified as Yawar Basir, Abu Furqan and Abu Maviya. Furqan is believed to have taken over as the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba in South Kashmir after Abu Ismail’s death.
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