A top Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, who was involved in an attack on under construction site at Gagangir in October in which seven persons were killed, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Dachigam forest area in outskirts of Srinagar on Tuesday, police said.
A police official said acting on specific intelligence inputs, a joint contingent of police, CPF and army launched a cordon-and-search operation in the upper reaches of Dachigam on Monday night.
He said as the security men were conducting searches, they came under fire from terrorists hiding in the forest area.
“The fire was returned by the troops and in the ensuing gunfight, a top Lashkar terrorist was killed today morning,” he said.
The slain terrorist was identified as Junaid Ahmed Bhat, a resident of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. He had joined militancy last year.
“Junaid, a category “A” terrorist of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, was wanted for his involvement in October 20 attack near a Z-morh tunnel construction site in the Gagangir area of Ganderbal in which a local doctor and six construction workers including five non local labourers were killed,” a police official said.
He said the search operation is going on and has not been called yet.
This is the second gunbattle on the outskirts of Srinagar in just over three weeks.
On November 10, a brief gunfight occurred in the forest area of Dachigam. However, the terrorists managed to escape, taking advantage of the dense forest cover. The search operation was subsequently called off.
Dachigam forest is located close to Srinagar, and connects further to south Kashmir and Central Kashmir areas.