Captain, militant killed in Sopore gunbattle

25 missing youth suspected to have joined Lashkar

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, Dec 8: In two days of a fierce rocket attack on the residence of Superintendent of Police, Police and Army have killed a Pakistani militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba in Sopore but not before a Captain of Rashtriya Rifles lost his life in the operation.

Informed sources in North Kashmir told Early Times that Sopore Police and troops of Rashtriya Rifles swooped on Model Town ‘B’ outskirts in Sopore when they received specific information regarding the presence of two militants at a house late last night. The holed up militants opened indiscriminate gunfire on the troops. Captain Abhimanyu of RR 22 Bn, who was leading the troops, sustained critical injuries. He was rescued and rushed to Army’s Base Hospital in Srinagar where he later succumbed to injuries.

Sources said that one of the holed up militants was believed to have made good his escape in the initial round of the firing. They said that troops zeroed in on the residential house of one Raja w/o Mohammad Ramzan Sheikh and killed one-odd militant in a 20-h0ur-long gunfight. Sources said that the target house was razed to rubble with IED blasts today. Dead body of one militant was recovered from the debris alongwith his AK-56 rifle.

With the help of residents and radio and telephonic intercepts, officials said that the slain militant was identified as Abu Ubaidullah, resident of Sialkote, Pakistan. They insisted that he was a local commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba.

While the operation was underway, a group of about a dozen youth shouted pro-Azadi and anti-India slogans and later resorted to stone pelting at a place in the town. They dispersed when Police chased them away. Death of a youth, allegedly injured in Police firing sometime back in Baramulla, was reportedly the stimulant of today’s short-lived tension in Sopore.

Well-placed official sources disclosed to Early Times that as many as 25 were missing in just two localities of Sopore since September this year and sustained silence from their families was an indication of their joining a militant outfit. According to usually reliable reports, all the 25 missing youth have been briefly trained and they have all joined LeT. Sopore area is likely to witness violence if reports of the missing youth having joined LeT turned to be true.

After the street clashes and stone pelting died down in the fourth week of August this year, militants have carried out a number of strikes on their targets in Sopore. During the night intervening December 5^th and 6th, militants attacked the official residence of SP Sopore, Altaf Khan, and caused considerable damage to his bedroom with rifle grenades and rockets. Khan had a providential escape as he had just shifted to an adjoining room.

On November 12^th, Police and Army killed a militant in an encounter at Chhankhan Naseem Bagh. However, a Police official also got killed. Earlier on November 10^th, militants had gunned down two CRPF personnel on the highway at Pattan. In August, militants had launched two successive strikes on the residential house of MLA Sopore, Haji Mohammad Ashraf Ganai, at Dangarpora. In one of these attacks, a junior Police official got killed. On June 25^th, Police and security forces had eliminated two militants in a fierce encounter at Chhankhan but a post-operation clash of the residents led to the killing of two civilians in CRPF firing.

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