Two terrorists of The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) were eliminated by Jammu and Kashmir police in an encounter in Srinagar on Monday. The police also recovered arms and ammunition from the spot.
According to the police, the killed terrorists includes Abbas Sheikh, the top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and self-claimed chief of TRF, and his deputy Saqib Manzoor, who were killed in the encounter with police personnel at Aloochi Bagh in the city.
The police said that they acted on specific input generated by them about the presence of terrorists in the Alochi Bagh area and an operation was planned by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, DIG Central Kashmir range and SSP Srinagar.
"A special and small team of Police was sent in covert and team raided a specific location. During the raid, the hiding terrorists were given the opportunity to surrender. However, they started firing on the police team. Our team also retaliated. In a brief shoot out, two terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF) were neutralised."
As per police records, both the killed terrorists were involved in the killing of several political workers, police personnel and civilians. Saqib Manzoor was involved in the killing of Advocate Babar Qadri last year. Besides, both the terrorists were also involved in several grenade attacks on security establishments and were also involved in several other terror crimes and civilian atrocities.
They were also involved in reviving terror folds in district Srinagar and in the process recruited seven youths into terror ranks in Srinagar among them four stands already neutralised.
Earlier, Abbas Sheikh was a Hizb ul-Mujahidin (HM) terrorist, arrested and released twice. Later on, he joined LeT.
"IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar congratulated the police team for conducting the successful operation without any collateral damage which is a big success. IGP Kashmir made an appeal to misguided youth who have joined terror ranks and also requested their family members to appeal their misguided kin to shun the path of violence and return to the mainstream, we will welcome and accept them with open arms," the statement said.
"All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation and to probe their complicity in other terror crimes," it added.
The police have registered a case under relevant sections of law and further investigation into the matter is underway.
( With inputs from ANI )
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