Lashkar commander among 2 militants killed in Pulwama

Srinagar, October 14 : Two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including a top commander of the group, were killed in a gunfight in Pulwama in south Kashmir on Saturday morning. The gunfight erupted in the wee hours when joint teams of police, army and CRPF launched an operation at Litter village, 35 km from here, after an input about the militant presence.
Later, a youth was killed and over a dozen injured in the clashes in Pulwama that erupted after the killing of the militants.
“As the suspected houses were zeroed in on, the hiding militants fired at the forces to break the cordon. The fire was returned and in the gunfight two Lashkar militants were killed,” a police officer said.Army identified one of the slain militants as Waseem Shah, the district commander of the group in Shopian.Shah, 23, believed to be the main architect of unrest last year in south Kashmir and also known as ‘Abu Osama Bhai’, was killed at Litter, a place considered a safe haven for militants. This is the first counter-insurgency operation in Litter area in four years.
Jammu and Kashmir Police have been tracking the movements of Shah, who is considered as the ‘don of Heff’, another traditional stronghold of militants in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.