Srinagar: Police on Sunday said that one of the two Lashker-e-Toiba affiliates killed in a pre-dawn encounter with government forces at Shopian was militant recruiter.
A police spokesman said that on a credible input, a cordon and search operation was launched at Hend-Sitapur area in the south Kashmir district.
“During the search operation, the hiding militants fired on the search party. The fire was retaliated leading to an encounter,” he said, adding that in the ensuing encounter, two Lashker-e-Toiba militants were killed. He identified the slain as Javid Ahmad Bhat of Redwani Kulgam and Adil Bashir Wani of Waripora D.H Pora Kulgam.
“They were wanted by law for their complicity in a series of crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities. Several crime cases were registered against them.”
According to police records, the spokesman said Javid had a long history of militancy related records and series of cases were registered against him for planning and executing militant attacks in the area. “He was also responsible for recruiting youth from adjoining areas of Kulgam to join proscribed (militant) outfits.”
Similarly, Adil Bashir was also involved in several attacks and several cases were registered against him, he said.
“Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition was recovered from the site of encounter. All these materials have been taken in the case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other crime cases,” the spokesman added.
