All Amarnath Yatra attackers killed: DGP

The success in Kashmir comes five months after LeT militants attacked a bus carrying people to the Hindu shrine, killing 7 pilgrims

​The group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants behind an attack on Amarnath pilgrims in July has been “wiped out”, the Jammu and Kashmir police chief said on Tuesday.

Soldiers take position in an apple orchard during a search operation in Shopian in Kashmir during an anti-insurgency operations. (AP file photo)

State police chief SP Vaid said in a series of tweets that the success was achieved when three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir on Monday.

At last seven pilgrims to the Hindu shrine at Amarnath were killed and 15 others were injured when militants attacked a bus with 56 people near Anantnag on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway on July 10.

The suspected mastermind of the attack, Abu Ismail, was also killed in an encounter in September.

“With the elimination of Abu Ismail earlier and now these three Abu Mavia, Furkan & Yawar group that attacked Amarnath Yatries is wiped out (sic),” Vaid said.

In another tweet he said the “4th terrorist” was caught.

Police said the arrested local resident, identified as Rashid Ahmad Allai, had recently joined the group. The militant was arrested with a Chinese pistol from a hospital in the area.

According to police, Furqan was heading the group after after Ismail’s death and had masterminded all recent attacks on security forces in the valley.

The encounter was the latest in a series of success by security forces that has resulted in the death of several top militants this year, including Let commanders Abu Dujana and Hizbul Mujahideen’s Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, the successor of Burhan Wani as the outfit’s Kashmir chief. Wani’s killing last year had sparked months-long street protests in the Valley that left more than a 100 people, most of them civilians dead.

Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar’s nephew Tallah Rashid was also killed in another encounter.

Vaid had said earlier that around 170 militants had been killed by security forces in Kashmir till October – claiming it to be a record of sorts in the past decade.