SRINAGAR: Two militants including top commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Nadeem Abrar were killed in an encounter with counter insurgent forces on Tuesday morning at Maloora area of central Kashmir’s Srinagar district, police said.
A police spokesman in a statement said that there was a specific input about militants carrying an attack on highway.
“Keeping in view the seriousness of the input few joint nakas of JKP & CRPF were place along the highway,” said the spokesman.
“On Parimpora Naka a vehicle was stopped and their identity was asked. The person sitting at the back seat tried to open his bag and took out a grenade,” he said.
“The Naka party swiftly swung into action and grabbed the person sitting at the back seat. Both the driver and the person sitting at the back seat were taken into police station where after taking off his mask it was identified that he was militant Abrar a top LeT Commander,” he added.
“He was put to joint interrogation by JKP, CRPF and Army. One Pistol and hand grenades were recovered from his possession,” said the spokesman, adding that “on sustained interrogation by the joint teams of JKP, CRPF & Army he disclosed that he had kept his AK-47 rifle in a house located at Maloora.”
“There after he was taken to that house to recover the weapon after laying proper cordon of suspected house,” he said.
“When the party was entering the house to recover the alleged weapon, one of his associate, a Pakistani militant (about whom he didn’t disclose anything) hiding inside the house fired on the party,” he added.
“In the initial fire fight 3 CRPF personnel got injured and the said militant Abrar accompanying the search party got hit. The injured CRPF personnel were evacuated and the rest of the party took position and called for reinforcement,” said police spokesman in a statement.
“The cordon of target house was strengthened by component of JKP, CRPF & Army and the fire was further retaliated. In the ensuing gun fire foreign militant who fired from inside the house got neutralised and Abrar also got killed,” he said.
“Two AK-47 rifles along with ammunitions were recovered from the site. It is pertinent to mention that Abrar was involved in several killings of SFs along with other militants,” said police spokesman in a statement.
