A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was killed in an ongoing anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday, police said.
The operation, which entered its fifth day, was launched in the Chanapora area of Shopian on Saturday evening following specific intelligence inputs about the presence of two militants.
A brief exchange of fire had taken place when the operation was launched. Security forces maintained the cordon and continued searches in the area over the past few days before fresh contact was established with the hiding militants on Wednesday morning, leading to another exchange of fire.
Confirming the killing, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said in a post on X, “You can run, but you can’t hide! One Lashkar terrorist neutralised by SOG Shopian, in a joint operation, along with RR and CRPF.”
The Army identified the slain terrorist as Zakir Ahmad Ganie and said arms, ammunition and other war-like stores were recovered from the site of the encounter.
Sources said Zakir was an “A plus plus “category LeT militant.
The combing operation was still underway in the area.
J&K’s Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat, visited Shopian on Wednesday to review the ongoing operation, with senior officers of Army’s Victor Force, CRPF and Police.
The encounter is the first in south Kashmir in nearly 10 months. The last gun battle in the region took place on September 8-9 last year in the Gader forest area of Kulgam district, where two Army personnel and two LeT militants — one a Pakistani national and the other a local recruit — were killed.
