Kupwara Encounter: Two More LeT Militants Killed, says DIG Das

Zara is said to be a non-local militant.

Sources identified the militant killed last evening as Abu Usman alias Zaraar.

A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander hailing from Pakistan was among three guerrillas killed in a gun battle with security forces on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district, police said.

Officials said the fighting broke out soon after troops from the Army’s 28 Rashtriya Rifles and the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) launched an operation against the militants in Lohar Mohalla on Friday evening.

According to witnesses, news of the three militants’ deaths brought local residents onto the streets and led to protests against Indian rule.

In Saturday’s operation, two more militants were killed.

The police official said that further reinforcement had reached the spot were the gunbattle was on to ensure that the holed up terrorists remained confined in the house.

LeT outfit is accused of carrying out a terror attack on India’s financial capital Mumbai in 2008. Gunfights between the two sides take place intermittently across the region.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.