Top LeT commander Abu Qasim gunned down by security forces

The Jammu and Kashmir police had announced a bounty on Qasim’s head.

The safety officers launched an operation at 2 AM after getting intelligence inputs that Qasim and his aides are holed up in a home at Khandipura village in Kulgam. He was also said to be involved in the killing of Altaf Ahmad, one of the best counter-terrorism police officers in Jammu and Kashmir, earlier this month in a gunbattle in Bandipore district. Qasim was allegedly the mastermind of Udhampur attacks, in which 8 Army jawans were killed. One terrorist was also shot dead while another, Pakistani national Mohammed Naved, was captured by the police.

A joint group of forces was rushed in and the village was cordoned off. Qasim was killed when he and his accomplices tried to interrupt cordon laid by safety forces.

This is a major breakthrough for security agencies as Qasim was heading the operations of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) in Kashmir since the past five years.

According to media reports quoting a senior police official, a group of terrorists took refuge in the forests in the area after firing at a patrol party on Wednesday afternoon. Abu Qasim, with his huge guerrilla warfare experience, had managed to travel from north Kashmir to south Kashmir after killing Dar on October 7, without landing into trouble in Srinagar or other areas. “Some conscienceless elements act as Indian agents and get these militants killed for petty gains”.