J&K: Two Lashkar commanders killed in overnight encounter in Anantnag district, say police

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders were killed in a night-long encounter on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, the police said. A search operation was launched on Thursday after receiving specific information about the presence of militants in Sirhama area of the district.

The deceased have been identified as Adil Ahmad Bhat and Abu Rehan. Bhat is a resident of Pulwama and Rehan was a Pakistani national. The police said both of them have been involved in planning and executing several terror attacks, including civilian atrocities and attacks on security establishments in the Valley.

“During the search operation, as the presence of terrorist got ascertained they were given opportunity to surrender however instead they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which was retaliated leading to an encounter,” a press release said. “Due to darkness the operation was suspended and the whole area was put under strict cordon. Terrorists trapped inside made certain attempts to break the cordon and escape from the spot.”

The police said that incriminating materials such as arms and ammunition were seized from the militants. “It’s pertinent to mention that the Insas rifle snatched in Nowgam attack was also recovered from the site,” the release said. “All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes.”

On Thursday, an unidentified militant was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. On the same day, a Central Reserve Police Force officer was killed in a separate incident and his rifle snatched in an attack by militants on security forces at Kaisermulla in Budgam district.

The security forces had killed another militant in an overnight encounter in the Charar-e-Sharif area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district on Tuesday.

Three suspected militants were killed on September 17 in an encounter with security forces in Srinagar’s Batamaloo area. A civilian was also killed in the crossfire and a CRPF personnel had sustained injuries, the armed forces said in a statement.