Top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander among two terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir encounter

J&K Police gunned down two Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists, including one of its commanders, in an encounter in Srinagar on Monday afternoon, police said.

The terrorists were hiding among young boys who were playing cricket at Aloochi Bagh, IG-Kashmir Vijay Kumar told reporters. On receiving information about them, 10 policemen in civil dress rushed to the field and cordoned it. They spotted the terrorists and asked them to lay down their arms. The terrorists, instead, opened fire. The police retaliated and shot them down, the IG said.

The slain Lashkar terrorists included Abbas Sheikh of Kulgam, who was into militancy since the past seven years. The other terrorist Saqib Manzoor, who hailed from Old Barazulla, had killed two policemen at Anantang in South Kashmir in February this year.

Sheikh, who was earlier with Hizbul Mujahideen, had defected to LeT two years ago. According to security officials, he was the mastermind behind most of the killings undertaken by his outfit in the past one year.

Manzoor, a post graduate student when he joined LeT last year, quickly rose through the ranks as he was believed to have executed some of the killings in and around Srinagar at Sheikh’s behest.

“Top commander of proscribed terror outfit LeT/TRF Abbas Sheikh and his 2IC Saqib Manzoor killed. A big success,” Kumar tweeted.

Meanwhile, a CRPF personnel was injured after militants hurled a grenade on a bunker of the paramilitary force in Safakadal locality of Srinagar city on Monday, officials said. The CRPF personnel suffered minor injuries in the explosion, they added.

Source: MSN