Srinagar: Security forces in Kashmir today killed 2 Pakistan-supported terrorists who were involved in several acts of terrorism, including the recent killing of a Sarpanch, officials said.
The terrorists — one belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba and the other to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) — were gunned down in an encounter in Tral area of Awantipora sub-district in south Kashmir following a specific input, the officials said.
“Based on specific inputs received from JKP (Jammu and Kashmir Police) regarding likely presence of terrorists in the general area of Tral, Awantipora, the Indian Army along with JKP established multiple joint mobile vehicle check posts in the general area at about 6:30 am on 06 Apr 22,” the Army spokesman said in a statement.
“At around 6:45 am, the Security Forces were fired indiscriminately upon by the terrorists at a checkpoint at village Arigam, South Tral, to which they swiftly retaliated and neutralised one terrorist,” he said.
The second terrorist was engaged at another checkpoint at around 8:40 am and was neutralised after a brief gunfight, the spokesman added.
Citing the police records, he said the neutralised terrorists were identified as Shafat Muzafar Sofi, who had joined AGuH on October 8 last year and Umar Nabi Teli, who had joined LeT on August 11 last year.
Warlike stores have been recovered from the encounter area, he added.
Both the slain terrorists were operating in Srinagar district and after civilian and ‘soft-target’ killings, they shifted to Tral, Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar.
However, they could not escape the police dragnet for long as they were tracked down and eliminated.
In Srinagar, they were involved in several terrorist acts, including the killing of Sarpanch Sameer Ahmad in Khanmoh last month.
Shafat was also involved in grenade throwing on CRPF camp on March 19, the police spokesman said.
They were trying to pull more youth towards terrorism by brainwashing them, the police said.