Three militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit (LeT) and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the counter-insurgency unit of the police were killed during a nightlong encounter in the Pantha Chowk area on the outskirts of the city.

One of the three slain militants was an LeT commander, who was active for the past year and a half. According to the police, he was involved in several attacks on the security forces besides weapon-snatching and luring youth to join militant ranks.

“All three were from the LeT. One of them was their commander and he was involved in terror activities for the past year and a half,” Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told reporters after the encounter ended on Sunday morning.

He described ASI Babu Ram as a “very brave member of the Special Operations Group team, who had been part of the counter-insurgency operations for a long time”.

Later, the police identified the slain militants as Saqib Bashir Khanday, Umar Tariq Bhat and Zubair Ahmad Sheikh —- all residents of Drangbal in Pampore, Pulwama. “As per police records, the killed terrorists were part of groups involved in planning and executing several terror attacks in the area. Besides a weapon-snatching bid at J&K Bank in Pampore, Saqib Bashir (LeT commander) was also involved in radicalising youth and luring them into the terror fold,” said a police official. He said the encounter started at 10 pm on Saturday after security forces foiled a weapon-snatching attempt following an attack from militants on a two-wheeler.

“Yesterday in a weapon-snatching bid, terrorists fired indiscriminately on a joint naka party of the police and security forces at Pantha Chowk. The attempt was foiled by the naka party and terrorists managed to flee the spot. However, they were followed by the police and CRPF,” the police official said.

He said despite being given an opportunity to surrender and appeals from their respective family members at the encounter site, the militants fired indiscriminately on the search party. The official said the militants were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Daily Tribune:  30th August, 2020