Northlines Web-Desk
Jammu Tawi/Srinagar, September 30: A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, identified by security officials as Mohammad Asif, alias ‘Hashim Moosa’, was killed in an encounter with security forces in the higher reaches of central Kashmir’s Budgam district, officials said.
The operation was launched in the Korag area of Yousmarg on the basis of specific intelligence inputs. A joint team comprising the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF was conducting a search operation when troops noticed suspicious movement in the area.
According to the Army, when the suspected terrorists were challenged, they opened fire, triggering an exchange of fire. During the ensuing gunfight, one terrorist was neutralised.
Security officials subsequently identified the slain terrorist as Moosa and said he was killed in the Dudhpathri forest area, a remote and difficult-to-access part of the district. The Army’s Chinar Corps, in its initial communication, did not disclose the identity of the slain terrorist.
Officials said Moosa had been wanted in connection with several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and was believed to have operated on both sides of the Pir Panjal range.
He had reportedly escaped during an earlier encounter in the Yousmarg hills on September 5, in which his close associate Yasir was killed.
The latest operation followed continued efforts by security forces to track terrorists operating in the forested and mountainous areas of central Kashmir.
Officials described Moosa’s killing as a significant setback to the LeT network operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Search operations were continuing in the area following the encounter, they said.