Top LeT militant shot dead in J&K

On Sunday evening, J&K police, Army and paramilitary forces, acting on a tip-off, cordoned off Krankshivan colony in Sopore and found the militants holed up in a house. This resulted in a gunbattle in which the militant was killed.

The militant was identified as Mehmood Bhai, who has been on the police radar since last year. His associate from Hizbul Mujahideen, Javeed Ahmad Matoo, however, managed to escape.

As the encounter resumed on Monday morning, police brought Matoo’s mother to convince him to surrender, but there was no response. Security personnel assumed he died in the encounter, but when they began search for bodies in the house, he suddenly appeared, fired at them and escaped.

Later, when the security personnel were returning after the gunfight, a stone-pelting mob, protesting the police action, tried to set an armoured vehicle on fire. In reply, security forces opened fire, killing a civilian and wounding four persons.

“Security forces first used non-lethal weapons, but the situation could not be controlled,” said police spokes-person Manoj Kumar.

The injured were rushed to the Sub District Hospital Sopore where one of them, Arshad Ahmad Shah, was declared brought dead, while the rest were referred to Srinagar for specialised treatment.

“They were mostly hit in chest and abdomen,”Block Medical Officer Dr Masood told The Indian Express.