Four LeT terrorists involved in July 10 Amarnath attack eliminated: J&K police

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday said that a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander was among three militants killed in a fierce gun battle that took place in southern Kulgam district on Monday night.

It also claimed that the slain men were involved in the July 10 attack in neighbouring Anantnag district in which eight Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 19 others injured.

J&K’s Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, identified the slain militants as LeT ‘divisional commander’ as Furqan, a Pakistan national and his accomplices Abu Muawiyah (also a Pakistani) and Yawar Bashir, a resident of Kulgam’s Hablish village. A fourth militant who had escaped during the encounter was arrested from a maternity hospital in Anantnag on Tuesday.

The police chief tweeted, “Furkan, a Pakistani terrorist who took over as Divisional commander of LeT after the elimination of Ismail was killed in today’s encounter at Qazigund along with another Pakistani terrorist identified as Abu Mavia. Great success for security forces!”

The police had on September 14 said that LeT’s Abu Ismail, the “mastermind” of the attack on Amarnath pilgrims was killed in a fire fight with the security forces in Srinagar’s Nowgam area earlier during that day.

Vaid wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com on Tuesday “With the elimination of Abu Ismail earlier & now these three Abu Mavia , Furkan & Yawar group that attacked Amarnath Yatries is wiped out”.

The fighting in Bonigam area near Qazigund, the gateway to Kashmir Valley from the south, had begun late Monday afternoon after the group of four LeT militants ran into a private house in the village after targeting an Army convoy moving along the Srinagar-Jammu highway. A soldier of Sikh Li who was injured in the attack later died in a military hospital in Srinagar.

Another soldier was injured in the ensuing encounter. The security forces including the Army, the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF used improvised explosive devices to blow up the house in their final assault against holed up militants, the police sources said.

Later the bodies of three militants were recovered from the encounter site. Their third accomplice who had escaped the security dragnet was traced in a maternity hospital in Anantnag.

The police said that it while “pursuing the leads available at Qazigund encounter” found militant identified by it as Rashid Ahmed Allai in the hospital in Anantnag’s Janglatmandi locality. It also said that a Chinese pistol with live cartridges was also recovered from Allai, a resident of Hamzapora in Sangam area of Anantnag’s Bijbehera belt.

Allai had joined the militants’ ranks only a couple of days ago. The police said, “Pertinently, this individual was missing from his house for last two days and had joined the Yawar group of LeT”. It also said that Allai took shelter in Anantnag hospital with the help of one of his associates. “He along with his associates was intending to snatch weapons from the policemen after attacking them. Further investigation is going on to unearth the conspiracy,” the police said.

LeT had on Monday while claiming responsibility for attacking the Army convoy said that four soldiers were killed and several others wounded. Its spokesman Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi said that the Bashir Lashkari squad of the outfit was involved in the attack. He threatened more such attacks.

On Tuesday, intense clashes took places between groups of youth and the security forces amid a spontaneous shutdown observed in several areas of Kulgam including the main town to mourn the death of militants. The security forces fired dozens of teargas canisters to quell stone-pelting mobs in the area, witnesses said.

Thousands of people attended multiple funeral prayers held for slain militant Yawar Bashir in his native village Hablish. His corpse had been draped in a green flag and the mourners were chanting pro-Pakistan and pro-aazadi slogans, the witnesses said. The bodies of the other two militants were transported to Uri area near the Line of Control for burial for their being foreign nationals, the police sources said.

Meanwhile, the J&K police on Tuesday said that two more local Kashmiri militants have shunned militancy and returned home. “Two more boys shunned the path of violence and returned home who went astray and joined the ranks of militants. Welcome back home!” DGP Vaid said in another tweet.