Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, including a Pakistani national tasked to target the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, were killed in an exchange of fire with police in Srinagar, inspector general Vijay Kumar said on Tuesday.
Kumar called the anti-insurgency operation around midnight a “big success” and added documents and other incriminating material recovered from the scene indicated one of the two, Abdullah Goujri, was from Faisalabad in Pakistani Punjab. He added that Goujri’s accomplice was identified as Adil Hussain Mir, a resident of the Anantnag district.
Kumar cited police records and added Mir vised Pakistan in 2018 on valid travel documents via Punjab’s Wagah border. He added the two were part of the group of terrorists, who escaped from the scene of another firefight in Sopore, around 50 km away, on June 6. “We were tracking their movement.”
Kumar said the group was sent from Pakistan to attack the Amarnath Yatra to south Kashmir Himalayas, which begins this month after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He said all three have been killed now.
Security has been enhanced in the region in view of the annual pilgrimage and following a spate of targeted killings of civilians and police personnel.
Police said they recovered two AK-47 rifles, and 10 magazines, among other incriminating materials from the Srinagar gunbattle scene. A policeman was also wounded but is out of danger.
Twelve terrorists have been killed in Kashmir this month. As many as 30 of 102 terrorists killed this year in the region have been Pakistanis. On Sunday, four LeT terrorists were killed at separate places in Jammu & Kashmir. One of them was involved in the killings of two policemen last month.