Top LeT Commander Among Two Militants Killed in Srinagar

The slain commander was involved in the killings of civilians in the name of informers, police said.

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday claimed to have killed two militants in two separate military operations in the outskirts of Srinagar city.

Both the military operations were launched in the Shalimar area of the capital city Srinagar of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the first operation, police said a top Lashkar-e-Toiba militant was killed inside the famous Shalimar garden. The slain militant was identified as Muhammad Saleem Parray, a resident of Hajin in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, Vijay Kumar said that Parray’s killing was “a big success” for the government forces as he was involved in dozens of killings including the throat-slitting of 12 people in 2016.

The IGP said that the police cornered Parray who fired at the government forces who retaliated. “In the retaliatory fire, he was killed.”

A police spokesperson said that based on specific input generated by the Police regarding the presence of militants in the Shalimar area, a search operation was launched by Srinagar Police and CRPF in the said area. “During the search operation, the search party was fired upon indiscriminately by hiding militant, which was effectively retaliated leading to a brief shootout and the killing of Parray.”

An hour later, police said that a military operation was launched in the Gasu area of Shalimar in Srinagar city.

The police spokesperson said that soon after the previous operation, another operation was carried out by the Police, CRPF, along with the Army in the Gasu area. During the operation, one foreign militant identified as Hafiz alias Hamza, a resident of Pakistan, was killed.

“As per the police records, Parray was a categorized militant, active since 2016 and was wanted in several cases. He was involved in several civilian killings including the killing of Bashir Ahmad Dar and his brother Ghulam Hassan Dar at Shahgund Hajin on 05/05/2018, and the killing of Hilal Ahmad Parray at Parray Mohalla Hajin on 16/05/2018. Besides, he was also involved in the throat-slitting of many civilians in the Hajin area. He was also involved in providing logistic support to the militants operating in the area to carry militant attacks [sic].”

The spokesperson further added that the slain had spread a “reign of terror” by abducting civilians and killing/torturing them “in the name of informers”.

While interacting with media persons, IGP said that Hamza was involved in several crimes including the recent killing of two policemen at Gulshan Chowk Bandipora and after that, he shifted to the Harwan area of Srinagar. “He was also involved in the killing of a CRPF personnel at Hajin Bandipora, killing of a civilian namely Nadif Hanief Khan of Bilal Colony Soura in Buchpora.”