JOIN USSources in the police said a cordon was laid in a mountainous area of Pijari in Kishtwar following a tip-off about the presence of Jehangir Saroori, one of the main plotters of the Delhi blasts, and a gun battle was sparked off while the security forces were chasing him.
A special police officer was killed in the gunfight, the sources said, adding there was difficulty in closing in on Saroori as the area is dotted with dense forests.
Following the blasts in New Delhi, the National Investigation Agency had zeroed in on Kishtwar town, 230 km north-east of Jammu and arrested three youth, after it was discovered that an e-mail claiming that Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami had executed the blast was sent from a cyber café there.
The three youth were taken to Delhi and during investigations, it had emerged that Saroori, also associated with militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen, was one of the masterminds, the sources said.
NIA had started looking for Saroori and Junaid after the arrest of Wasim Akram, a medical student in Bangladesh. Wasim, the brother of Junaid, had disclosed to the NIA that his brother and Jehangir were involved in plotting the blast that left 15 dead and over 80 injured.