Srinagar

A Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)  militant, said to be behind the recent killing of non-locals in south Kashmir, only recently crossed the border to India,  The Hindu quoted Director-General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh as having said.

The newspaper quoted Singh as having said the LeT operative, identified as Salman Bhai (28), alias Salman Afghani, was getting help from the local Hizbul Mujahideen militants Naveed Mushtaq (31) and Rahil Magray (26).

Naveed, a former policeman, had fled with four service rifles on May 20, 2017, and joined the Hizb. He has been on the most-wanted list of the J&K police for three years. Naveed and Magray are from Shopian, reported The Hindu.

Earlier, three non locals were killed by suspected militants in Shopian and Pulwama. Sethi Kumar Sagar, a brick-kiln labourer from Chhattisgarh, Charanjeet Popli, a fruit loader from Punjab, and Shareif Khan, a truck driver from Rajasthan, were shot dead.

According to report, Singh said the militant attacks were another way of harming the community economically as those killed were engaged in apple transportation. The two districts account for the largest production of apple in the Valley with a total output of around 5 lakh tonnes. It is bumper harvest and the trade season is from September to December.

“Salman Afghani, a new commander of the LeT, recently infiltrated from Pakistan. He is targeting non-locals just to harm the trust the locals had with them…. truckers and transporters come from outside the State,” The Hindu quoted Singh as having said.

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