A top commander of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant outfit was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Lolab area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Tuesday.
A senior police officer told Deccan Herald that operational chief of JeM, Qari Yasir was killed during a gunfight in Gareward, Lolab.
“Acting to specific information, police and soldiers of Army’s 18-Rashtriya Rifles Battalion launched a joint cordon-and-search operation at Garewad village at around 6:25 am. As the police and the Army zeroed in around a cowshed, the militant hiding inside opened indiscriminate fire, which was retaliated,” he said, adding, “In the ensuing gun battle one of the top most and wanted militant was killed.
Yasir, sources said, had recently escaped after killing an army soldier— Gobin Singh of 31 Rashtriya Rifles—at Kawardi-Warnow forests in Kupwara.
“He had suffered injuries in the encounter and had escaped from the spot and since then the police and Army was looking for him,” they said and added Yasir, a resident of Nooristan in Swat valley of Pakistan was active in the Valley since 2005 and took over as the chief commander of the outfit after the killing of Sajad Afghani.
“He was involved in a large number of militancy-related incidents in the Valley,” sources added. State’s Director-General Police Ashok Prasad termed the killing of Yasir as a big achievement. “He was responsible for coordinating infiltration bids from a across the Line of Control. Yasir had been active for the last one decade,” he said.
An Army spokesperson said that one AK-47 rifle with three magazines and three grenades were recovered from the possession of the slain commander.
“Elimination of Kari Yasir will result into a big jolt to the terror network operating in Kashmir Valley,” he claimed.