Suhail Khan
Srinagar, June 22 : A top militant commander was killed in an encounter with government forces on Saturday and according to police he was a Pakistani and affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit.
Reports reaching said that a joint team of army’s 6 Jakli regiment, SOG and 53 bn CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Bujthalan Boniyar area today morning.
A police spokesperson said that the cordon and search operation was laid following a “credible input” at Bujthalan Boniyar area by Police and other government forces.
During searches, he said, militants fired upon the search party which was retaliated, leading to an encounter.
In the ensuing encounter, one militant was killed and the body was retrieved from the site of the encounter, he said. “From the incriminating material recovered from the site of the gunfight, the slain has been identified as a foreigner from Pakistan and is believed to be from JeM outfit,” he said.
Pertinently with the efforts of Police and government forces, he said, it was a clean operation. No collateral damage happened during the encounter, the spokesman claimed.
Meanwhile, a senior officer told that the slain has been identified as Rashid alias Luqman, a top commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad who according to the police officer had been active for three years and during the time imparted training to militants to make IEDs. The militant was trying to exfiltrate when the encounter took place in Boniyar.
The slain militant was also seen in a video on social media in which he is spraying pesticides along with his associates Lateef Tiger, Tariq Molvi of Hizb, at an apple orchard somewhere in south Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the body of the slain militant was handed over to members of local Auqaf Committee at Boniyar where he was later buried, the official said. (GNS)
