Centre intensifies CT ops in Kashmir, 9 terrorists killed in six days

The intensification of counterterrorism operations comes after Union home minister Amit Shah on October 7 directed the security forces and intelligence agencies to neutralise the threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups in Kashmir.

Published on: Oct 13, 2021, 22:01:09 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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As many as nine terrorists have been killed in six encounters in the last six days after security forces intensified counterterrorism operations in the aftermath of targeted killings of minority civilians in Kashmir. Apart from the major success in the form of top Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander Shamim Ahmed Sofi’ killing, eight other terrorists: Aqib Bashir Kumar; Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar; Yawar Gani Dar; Danish Hussain Dar; Yawar Hassan Naikoo; Mukhtar Ahmad Shah; Khubaib Ahmad Nengroo; and Ubaid Ahmad Dar have been neutralised so far.

Union home minister Amit Shah had pitched for firm action as the Hindu and Sikh killings in Kashmir were designed to spread terror within minority communities. (PTI)

The intensification of counter-terrorist operations comes after Union home minister Amit Shah on October 7 directed the security forces and intelligence agencies to neutralise the threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups in Kashmir. Shah pitched for firm action as the Hindu and Sikh killings in Kashmir were designed to spread terror within minority communities who wanted to come back to the Valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A.

The security agencies have identified their affiliations either with Pakistan-based JeM, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or local terror modules like Hizbul Mujahideen and The Resistance Front, both backed by Pakistani terror groups.

Also Read | With Shameen Sofi killing, Pulwama massacre heads for closure

Danish Hussain Dar, who was a close friend of active militants Afaq Sikander Lone and Ubaid Ahmad Dar, disappeared on June 20, 2021, weeks before the targeted killings started in the Valley. He was affiliated with LeT. Dar had fired upon a civilian at Chatergam Shopian in which the person got critically injured.

Aqib Bashir Kumar, a local terrorist affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in Srinagar’s Natipora locality last week. Aqib Bashir Kumar left his home in November 2020 and didn’t return back, prompting his parents to lodge a missing report two days later. The Hizbul terrorist was involved in a grenade attack on a CRPF party at Chanpora in which personnel and one civilian were critically injured. He was also involved in motivating the Kashmiri youth to join ranks in the terror outfit.

Initially a stone pelter, Yawar Hassan Naikoo was arrested in 2015 and was released after 15 days in detention. He went missing in December 2020 after which his father lodged a report with Shopian police. Reports suggest that Naikoo was motivated by local terrorists and managed his induction in Hizbul Mujahideen. He was killed in Shopian on Tuesday.

Ubaid Ahmad Dar, a TRF recruit, was said to be a close friend of Aafaq Sikander Lone who took the path of militancy in December last year. He disappeared in February this year and joined the LeT offshoot. Accused of attacking a police party at Manzgam area of Kulgam in which two police personnel got critically injured, Dar was also neutralised on Tuesday in at Ferripora Shopian.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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