During the encounter, violent protests broke out in the area leaving, at least, one person dead and 35 others injured. (Photo: H.U. Naqash)

Srinagar: A top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) militant Waseem Shah and an accomplice was killed in a fire fight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district on Saturday.

The police claimed that Shah was the main architect of 2016 unrest in south Kashmir and carried a cash reward of Rs 1 million on his head. During the encounter, violent protests broke out in the area leaving, at least, one person dead and 35 others injured. 

While the police said that civilian was killed in the crossfire between the security forces and the holed up militants, the locals alleged that he was deliberately targeted by the security forces. 

He died of bullet wound, said doctors. The police said that 31-year-old Shah and his bodyguard Nisar Ahmed Mir were trapped in a private house in Pulwama’s Littar area when the security forces including the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group, Army’s Rashtriya Rifles and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation early on Saturday. 

“The militants opened fire at the search party and Shah who was known also as ‘Abu Osama Bhai’ and Mir were killed in the ensuing gun battle”, the officials. The house in which the duo was trapped suffered extensive damage in the fire fight. The officials added that this was the first encounter in Littar area, considered to be a hotbed of militancy, in four years.

The officials said that the duo had tried to break the security dragnet to escape “but the security forces foiled their attempt and both were killed in retaliatory fire.” Shah, a resident of Pulwama’s Heff village, was a college dropout who joined militancy in 2014.

During the encounter, clashes broke out between surging crowds of locals, mainly youth, and the security forces during which one person Gulzar Ahmed Mir was killed. About three dozen people were injured in the security forces’ action during which pellet shotguns were also used, witnesses and hospital sources said.

In the evening, thousands of people attended the funeral of Shah at Heff and that of his accomplice Mir at Littar. The witnesses said that nimaz-e-jinaza or the funeral prayer of Shah was offered, at least, five times to accommodate huge crowds of people who relocated to Heff from near and far off villages.