Four terrorists, including a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, have been neutralised so far in the ongoing encounter that broke out in Malwah area of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district in early house of Thursday, said police.
In the operation, LeT commander Yousuf Kantroo, who was on the list of top 10 most wanted terrorists was neutralised.
Acting on a specific input, a special team of Budgam Police along with the Army launched a joint cordon and search operation in Malwah area. During the search operation as the joint search party reached the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon them in which four soldiers including one officer received minor injuries. The fire was effectively retaliated leading to an encounter, said Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Later on, Baramulla Police headed by SSP Baramulla also joined in the operation. One policeman from the Baramulla district also got injured in the encounter and was later on shifted to Army's base hospital in Srinagar.
According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, terrorist Yousuf Kantroo earlier joined as an overground worker of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) outfit and was arrested in the year 2005. Later on, he was released in the year 2008 but he again joined terrorist rank in the year 2017 and started killing innocent civilians, policemen and political workers. Later on he switched from HM to LeT terror outfit.
However, the identification of the other killed terrorist is yet to be ascertain.
As per police records, the killed terrorists were categorized terrorists and part of groups involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on police and security forces and civilian atrocities.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation. The operation is still underway.
( With inputs from ANI )
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