Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 2: A top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander is believed to be dead in an encounter in the North Kashmir forest area of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara this evening.
Brigadier General Staff (BGS) of Srinagar based 15 Corps, Brigadier K J S Dhillon, told Excelsior that on a specific information Army cordoned off Dudipora village in Handwara this evening. He said that they had the information about the presence of a top LeT militant inside the village.
The Brigadier said that during searches Army was fired upon resulting in an encounter at around 5:45 p.m. The fire fight continued for two hours and now the firing from inside has stopped, he added.
The BGS said that cordon of the village continued and Army has put the operation on hold till the first light tomorrow so as to avoid any collateral damage during the night. He said that the operation will be resumed tomorrow morning.
Police sources said that district commander of the LeT, Hanzala, is believed to be dead as the police and the Army received information about his presence in the village. When the cordon was laid, the militant fired from inside the house of one Ajaz Ahmad Hajam son of Mohammad Ramzan Hajam of Dudipora.
The sources further said that during the encounter the house caught fire and the fire brigade was also called in and after the firing stopped at around 8 p.m. they started extinguishing the fire.
The sources said that Hazala was most wanted militant in the area and was active for past 2 years. This is the 14th militant, who was killed this year by the security forces in Handwara area.
It may be mentioned here that during the last month’s operations in Handwara forests that were launched against recently infiltrated 10 LeT militants, six of them were killed.
On July 17 police and the troops of 6 Rashtriya Rifles killed a militant at Budh Shungani village in Handwara after security forces received information about the presence of 3-4 militants in the area. However, rest of the militants fled when they noticed security force movement.
Three militants of the group were killed in an operation in Bangas valley of Handwara on July 5 while two more were killed in the operation in Bawan village on July 6 while 4 security force personnel were injured in the operation.
A senior officer of the Army last month admitted that a group of around 8-10 militants had managed to infiltrate into the Handwara forests. “Six of them have been eliminated while operation against rest of them is going on”, he added.
The Chief of Srinagar based 15-Corps of Army, Lt. General Om Prakash said last month that they have foiled majority of the infiltration bids this year. He said around 550-600 militants are waiting on the launching pads across the Line of Control (LoC) to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to fill the void created in the militant ranks due to successful operations across the State. He didn’t rule out the infiltration of few odd militants.
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