LeT man, thought dead, held in Jammu and Kashmir

The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday evening took into custody a top commander of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), earlier thought dead in a March encounter with the security forces.

Abu Okasha, the militant commander, was unassumingly walking down a street in Sogam town of the frontier Kupwara district when members of J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) stopped him for routine checking around 7 pm on Monday. During his frisking, they found a hand-grenade and Rs 38,000 in Indian currency in his possession.

He was removed to a makeshift interrogation centre where the cops were thrilled to know that he was Abu Okasha alias Abu Hanzla, the top LeT commander from Bahawalpur area of Pakistan’s Punjab province. He has been active in Jammu and Kashmir for the past many years and tops the list of most wanted foreign militants by security forces.

During the interrogation, it was also revealed that Abu Okasha was returning to the nearby woods after making some purchases from Sogam market. “He was asked to stop for checking merely on suspicion as a matter of routine,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity. He added that there was no prior information about his presence in the area. It is for the first time in the past many months that a foreign militant has been captured alive by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, on his disclosure, one AK rifle and other arms and ammunition were recovered, police sources said.

Abu Okasha carried a reward on his head for his role in the August 5, 2015 Udhampur attack. In March this year, the security forces had claimed that he was killed in an encounter in Puchal area of southern Pulwama district during which a top LeT commander, Abu Dojana and four other militants managed to escape the security ring due to protests and disturbance created by locals at the scene.

The NIA had announced a reward of Rs 500,000 for information leading to the arrest of Abu Okasha.