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Fidayeen attack averted, JeM militant killed in Shopian: Police
The police identified the slain militant as Kamran Bhai alias Hanees linked with the proscribed outfit JeM, who was active in south Kashmir for the past eight months.
A foreign Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir’s southern district of Shopian on Friday thus averting a fidayeen attack in the district, police officials said.
The police identified the slain militant as Kamran Bhai alias Hanees linked with the proscribed outfit JeM, who was active in south Kashmir for the past eight months.
Additional director general of police, Vijay Kumar said that Hanees was active in south Kashmir’s Kulgam-Shopian belt.
He termed the operation a big success. “A possible threat of fidayeen and other terrorist attacks were thwarted by his elimination,” he said.
A police spokesperson said Hanees was killed after a joint cordon and search operation was launched by police and the army’s 34 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) after information about the presence of militants in the Kapren area of Shopian.
The spokesperson said that to avoid any civilian casualty or injury, the joint team of forces evacuated teachers and students from a nearby religious school to safer places.
“During the search operation, as the joint search party approached the suspected spot, the hiding terrorist fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated effectively leading to an encounter,” the spokesperson said.
Later on, CRPF’s 178 battalion also joined the operation.
“In the ensuing encounter, Hanees, linked with proscribed terror outfit JeM, was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of the encounter,” the spokesperson said.
Police said that the slain militant was a “categorized terrorist and involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on police, security forces and civilians”.
“The terrorist was active in the Kulgam-Shopian area and was trying to revive the terror folds of JeM terror outfit by recruiting and motivating the gullible youth to join terror folds besides, planning to execute terror attacks,” the spokesperson said.
The police said that incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including an AK-74, and four magazines were recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.
“People are requested to cooperate with police till the area at the encounter site is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials,” the spokesperson said.
4 LeT militant associates arrested
Four associates of Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were arrested by the security forces in the southern district of Kashmir’s Pulwama.
The police spokesperson said that they recovered explosives and incriminating materials from their possession.
The four have been identified as Karamat-ul-lah Reshi and Suhail Bashir Ganai, both residents of Chewa Uller Tral, Adil Ghani Lone, a resident of Karamulla Tral and Irshad Ahmed Kumar, a resident of Tral-e-Payeen.
“During preliminary investigation, it was revealed that the arrested terrorist associates were in touch with LeT terrorist commander who goes by the aliases Babar and Samama, a resident of PoK,” the official said.
The official said that they were planning to hatch a conspiracy to plant IEDs in the Tral area to cause damage to the security forces.
“Besides, the arrested terrorist associates were also involved in the transportation of arms & ammunition and other logistic support to the active terrorists of LeT,” the spokesperson said.
A case under FIR No.164/2022 under relevant sections of law has been registered in Police Station Tral, and further investigation has been set into motion.
