SRINAGAR, June 29: A plot allegedly hatched by Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) to target prominent politicians in the state and Union capital was thwarted when security forces shot dead self-styled chief commander of the outfit in an encounter on the outskirts of Srinagar today, according to sources.The documents seized from the slain militant revealed that there had been a definite plan that Harkat was going to target prominent political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi, the sources said. They said on receipt of extremely reliable information about the likely movement of top leaders of the HUA, the security forces laid tactical ambushes along the route expected to be taken by the militants.At about 0230 hours today, one of the ambush parties noticed the movement of three militants and challenged them, the sources said and added that the militants threw grenades followed by firing from automatic weapons, sources said.The ambush party also retaliated and in the ensuing encounter one of the militants identified as Sanaullah, the self-styled chief commander of HUA hailing from Karachi (Pakistan), was killed while two of his associates escaped under the cover of darkness, the sources said.The sources said during search of the area, the security forces noticed a trail of blood leading away from the scene indicating that at least one of the two fleeing militants had been seriously injured.Besides arms and ammunition, a large number of documents were recovered from the dead militant leader, the sources said.Sanaullah alias `Naeem Khalid' had been responsible for all the violent activities by his outfit in the Valley, the sources said, adding Naeem was a staunch member of HUA and was inducted in Afghan war as a senior commander before he was shifted to Kashmir in 1991.After functioning as incharge of HUA in Anantnag, he was elevated to the rank of chief of the outfit in the state, sources said.Naeem is the third top most militant leader of the command council of the outfit killed by the security forces in the valley this year.HUA, a fundamentalist foreign based outfit with its headquarters in Pakistan and run by the enigmatic Moulvi Fazal-ul-Rahman, is managed in Kashmir through a seven-member central command council or `Markaz', the sources said.The source said out of the seven-members, Arif Sheikh alias ``Haji'' alias ``Abdullah'' of Doda (Jammu) and Pir Baba alias ``Gazi'' of Pakistan were killed and Nazir Chhan was arrested earlier this year.
