Top Pakistani JeM terrorist killed in Shopian encounter

Srinagar: A “top commander” and IED “expert” of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and his close associate were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Saturday.

The police and Army officials here said that JeM commander from Pakistan Munna Lahori and his local accomplice Mir Zeenat Ul Islam were trapped inside a private house in Shopian’s Banday Mohalla, Bona Bazaar after the Army and J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) along with the members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid siege to the locality shortly before dawn.

“The cordon-and- search operation was launched on credible input about the presence of militant duo in the area. As the security forces zeroed in on the house being used by the terrorists as a temporary hideout, they came under a barrage of gunfire”, a police spokesman said.

He added that the security forces returned fire, triggering an encounter which lasted for several hours. “The terrorist duo was killed in the encounter. Both of them were wanted by law for their complicity in several terror crimes including attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities,” the spokesman said.

The Army and police officials said that Munna Lahori was involved in a series of attacks on security forces including the June 16 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Arihal village of Pulwama district in which two Army jawans were killed and the March 30 “partial car blast attack” against a convoy of the security forces at Banihal along the Srinagar-Jammu highway on security forces. “He was an IED expert and also responsible for recruitment of local Kashmiri youth into the terrorist ranks”, they said.

Asked if the security forces also suffered any casualties in the fire fight, the police said, “Due to the efforts of the police and security forces it was a clean operation and no collateral damage took place during the exchange of fire”.