11 militants eliminated, LeT crippled

Guided by precise ground intelligence based on technical surveillance from the Intelligence Bureau, the Jammu and Kashmir police and Indian Army have been able to inflict serious attrition on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) cadres in the Valley - killing 11 terrorists, seven of them Pakistan nationals, this month. Shishir Gupta reports. India’s war against terror

Guided by precise ground intelligence based on technical surveillance from the Intelligence Bureau, the Jammu and Kashmir police and Indian Army have been able to inflict serious attrition on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) cadres in the Valley - killing 11 terrorists, seven of them Pakistan nationals, this month.

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Even though Fahadullah, a so-called divisional commander of LeT, managed to escape during the Sopore encounter on December 18, Iftikhar, a local terror financier from Kulgam, and Bashir Langda, a harbourer, were taken into custody. Nine AK-47 rifles, 26 magazines, 12 hand grenades, five pistols, night vision devices, four GPS instruments and two compasses were recovered from the dead terrorists.

Top government sources said that between December 13-23, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K police managed to hit an LeT group headed by Hanjala Adnan in north Kashmir and Sajid network in south Kashmir. LeT commander Adnan is said to be working under 26/11 accused Muzammil, and is the force behind the north Kashmir operations of the terrorist group.

Significantly, security forces were able to identify the seven dead Pakistan terrorists killed in the Sopore encounter after LeT's Adnan group put up their names on Facebook this week. Those owned up by LeT have been identified as Faisal Gazali, Wasim Ghauri, Ibrahim, Jamawari, Urfi, Junaid and Nabid.

The first encounter between the SOG and LeT took place on December 13 morning, resulting in the death of Yayah - a Pakistani national - in Cherhar, Sopore. The second encounter took place the same day at Mundiz, in which local LeT cadre Omar Ahsan Butt and an unidentified Pakistani national were killed. On December 18, local LeT cadre Atif Ahmed Dar and five Pakistani LeT terrorists harboured by Bashir Langda were killed. All the nine terrorists were part of the Hanjala Adnan network.