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Were involved in several attacks, civilian atrocities, police on militants killed on Monday
The Resistance Force chief commander Abbas Shiekh and his deputy Saqib Manzoor, who were killed in a covert operation on Monday evening, had been on the been trying to revive militancy in Srinagar, police said in a late-night release after the encounter
The Resistance Force chief commander Abbas Shiekh and his deputy Saqib Manzoor, who were killed in a covert operation on Monday evening, had been on the been trying to revive militancy in Srinagar, police said in a late-night release after the encounter.
Terming their operation a “big success”, police said the duo had been involved in the killings of several political workers, police personnel and civilians in the city.
For the past several weeks, police had been pursuing several leads to track down Shiekh after getting inputs that he was operating from Srinagar and shuttling between central and South Kashmir.
Shiekh was earlier a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, arrested and released twice. Later, he joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and was currently operating as the chief of TRF, a shadow front of LeT.
Inspector general of police Vijay Kumar said, “A small team of police, comprising 10 members, was sent in covertly to raid a specific location in Alochibagh area. During the raid, the hiding militants were given an opportunity to surrender, however, they started firing on the police team. Our team also retaliated. In a brief shootout, two militants of LeT (TRF) got neutralised,” he said.
Abbas Sheikh was resident of Kulgam district and his deputy, district commander, Saqib Manzoor hailed from Barzulla.
“They were involved in the killing of several political workers, police personnel and civilians. Saqib Manzoor was involved in killing of advocate Babar Qadri last year. Besides, both them were also involved in several grenade attacks on security establishments and were also involved in several other terror crimes and civilian atrocities,” a police spokesman said in a statement.
Police said Shiekh, in a bid to revive militancy in Srinagar, had recruited seven youths into militant ranks, of which four have been killed.
Saqib Manzoor got active in 2020 and helped Shiekh carry out the attacks in the city.
Police said Srinagar had become militancy-free in September last year but after Abbas Sheikh’s shifting to Srinagar city, he motivated and recruited Saqib and six other youths into his cadre.
Earlier this month, after the killing of 83 militants, mostly locals, police had released names of top 10 militants currently operating in Kashmir. The list included the names of Shiekh and Saqib Manzoor.
