SRINAGAR: Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla was killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s central district of Budgam on Wednesday. Three security personnel were injured during the clash, the officials said.
The police said that Jutt was a member of the same group of LeT cadres which had on it also 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab. He was involved in a number a series of attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities including the murder of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, it said.
Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jhatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and escaped from custody in February, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday, police said.
In a major success for the security forces, “most wanted” Jhatt, who was an associate of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was killed along with an accomplice in an encounter in a village in central Kashmir’s Budgam area, officials said.
Three Army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of the terrorist who had slipped away from the police dragnet at least six times and was involved in multiple attacks in the Valley over the years.
The LeT terrorist was a Pakistani national and due process would be followed, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said. “We’ll be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body,” Singh told PTI.
The endgame for Jhatt, alias Hanzalla, started in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir police cordoned off a house at Kuthpora Chattergam area of Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said.
A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at security forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jhatt’s killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the terrorists moved from one house to another.
During this process, the militants fired at the police and army teams, leading to minor injuries to the armymen who were shifted to hospital. —PTI
