Srinagar: An encounter on Friday in Sopore’s Warpora area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district resulted in two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists being killed, including a top commander. The deceased terrorists were named as self-styled commander Fayaz Ahmad War alias Rukana alias Umar, a resident of Warpora; and his aide Shaheen Ahmad Mir alias Shaheen Molvi, a resident of Budgam’s Cherpora, IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar said. Both were involved in a variety of terror crimes. The last perpetrator of recent violence in north Kashmir has been killed with War’s death, said IGP Kumar. Among the terrorists killed in Kashmir Valley this year, most were from Lashkar, according to official records.
In addition to planning and executing attacks on security establishments, War was one of the most wanted terrorists in north Kashmir, the IGP said. Since 2008, War has been associated with terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen before surrendering with arms and ammunition and being detained under the Public Safety Act. In March 2020, he picked up arms again and joined Lashkar-e-Taiba.
He perpetrated a series of violent terrorist acts and violence in north Kashmir, including an attack on a police party at Warpora in March last year in which a cop and a civilian were killed. Three CRPF personnel and a civilian were killed at Ahad Baba crossing a month later. Two municipal councillors and a cop were killed in Sopore, and two policemen and two civilians were killed at Main Chowk, Sopore.
There were also several grenade attacks on police and security establishments in Sopore by War. He carried out grenadier attacks on a police post in Potukhah on May 26, 2020, PP Bus Stand on December 12, 2020, and PP Bus Stand on March 13, 2021, inflicting injury on four civilians and injuring two police.
In describing the encounter on Friday, the IGP said a joint team of the Army, the J&K Police and the CRPF conducted a cordon-and-search operation in Warpora late Thursday evening. The hived-in terrorists were repeatedly asked to surrender, but they shot at the search party, resulting in a gunfight in which the Lashkar duo was killed. From the scene of the encounter, the IGP said, weapons and ammunition as well as other incriminating items were recovered.
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