LeT commander Uzair killed in one of longest anti-militancy ops in Kashmir

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Uzair Khan and his associate were killed on Tuesday in one of Jammu and Kashmir’s longest anti-militancy operations that claimed the lives of three officers and a soldier in the Gadole forest area of southern Anantnag district last week.

The body of Uzair Khan was retrieved from the encounter site while another body is lying there, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said. There were inputs about the presence of two to three terrorists in the area. “Searches are underway to look for the third terrorist.

To a question whether the operation has been called off, he said the searches will remain on for some. “I urge the locals not to go closer to the encounter site as unexploded grenades or shells may cause harm to them,” the ADGP said.

The operation started on Wednesday when Colonel Manpreet Singh, commanding officer, 19 Rashtriya Rifles, Major Ashish Dhonchak and Deputy Superintendent of Police Humayun Bhat were killed in an ambush by the terrorists in a dense forest area of Kokernag.

The army and police had pressed on the latest gadgets including Heron, Hexacopter, drones, quad-copters, RPGs and drone-fitted guns to eliminate the terrorists. The operation was one of the longest in Kashmir as it took security forces seven days to eliminate the terrorists.

Besides the initial confirmation on the deaths of three officers, both the Police and the Army had maintained silence on the operation till today.

The mastermind of the September 12 attack, 28-year-old Uzair Khan had reportedly joined militant ranks in July 2022. But he came to limelight only last week after he along with two more terrorists launched a deadly ambush on a joint team of security forces, killing two senior officers of the Army and one J&K police officer.

Several social media posts suggest that Uzair had joined The Resistance Front (TRF) under the alias ‘Usman Ghazi’. The TRF is believed to be an offshoot of Pakistan-based LeT.

Security forces believe that the Kokernag attack illustrates, yet again, a lethal militant tactic in vogue since 2021 which entails luring security forces into dense forests where militants have the advantages of taking up strategic locations and knowledge of the terrain.