Top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Junaid Mattoo and his accomplice Muzamil were killed in an encounter with security forces in Arwani village of Bijbihara in Anantnag District of south Kashmir. Mattoo was trapped for more than eight hours with two other local Lashkar militants in a joint operation conducted by Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF to nab the terrorists. One militant has been apprehended by the security forces.
The terrorists were eliminated after an encounter that lasted for hours. Locals tried to hinder the army operation by pelting stones at the personnel.
20-year-old Mattoo, who has been listed as a ‘Category A’ terrorist carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head. A resident of Khudwan village in Kulgam, Mattoo is joined LeT at the age of 18 and has been an active commander for the past two years.
Reports from the area said the security forces used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to blast the two houses where the militants had been hiding.
A civilian identified as Muhammad Ashraf Khar, 22, was killed in clashes between the security forces and a stone pelting mob which gathered near the encounter site. Twelve protesting civilians were injured in these clashes.
Chatter from the terror group had suggested that besides Mattoo, the Lashkar militants are believed to be one Azad Malik and a Pakistani national.
Earlier on Thursday, two policemen were killed in two separate attacks by militants in the Kashmir Valley. Militants attacked a police party in the Hyderpora area of the city, at around 9.30 pm, by firing indiscriminately at a patrol party.
Two cops were injured in the attack and were rushed to 92 Base Hospital of the Army. One of them, constable Shehzad, succumbed to his injuries. In another incident, militants shot dead a policeman in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Constable Shabir Ahmad was shot outside his residence at Bogund in Kulgam. The cop was rushed to a local hospital but he did not survive.
CBI says it was not a ‘Raid’ at Manish Sisodia’s house; ‘Did they go for tea,’ asks AAP.
