Top LeT commander killed in Kashmir

A top militant commander of the Laskar-e-Tayiba was killed in a fierce encounter in North Kashmir's Sopore on Tuesday afternoon.

A senior police officer identified the militant commander as Abdullah Uni, who was the most-wanted LeT commander in the Valley. "He carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head and was involved in several militancy related incidents," said the senior police officer.

Uni, a Pakistani resident, was active in Kashmir for nearly a decade and figured on top of the most wanted list of militants in the state as he was involved in several lethal attacks on security forces, political workers and civilians in north Kashmir.

He was also one of the accused in the murder of Jamiat-e-Ahlihadees chief Moulana Shoukat Ahmad Shah, who was killed in a bomb blast outside a Srinagar mosque in April this year.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of some Lashkar militants in Baghat-e-Batpora locality in Sopore, a joint team of police and Rashtriya Rifles cordoned off the area around noon, official sources said.

When the security personnel were busy in house-to-house searches to flush out the militants, the latter opened fire on the search party triggering a gunbattle, they said.

The gunfight resulted in the killing of the militant who was later identified as Uni.

The top Lashkar commander had managed to give slip to security forces at least eight times in the last two years after being cornered during search operations.

With inputs from PTI