LeT’s J&K chief Abdullah Uni killed in Sopore

Killer of 15, including a Maj, Uni had escaped from 12 cordons in 10 years

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 13: On completion of the first zero-casualty year, Jammu and Kashmir Police, alongwith Army, got a remarkable achievement today when J&K ‘Commander-in-Chief’ of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Azhar Malik alias Abdullah Uni, died in a gunbattle in Sopore township of Baramulla district. Believed to be responsible for scores of guerrilla operations and killing of at least 15 people, including a Major, Uni had escaped from over a dozen cordon-and-search operations in north Kashmir in the last 9 years.

SP Sopore, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir, told Early Times that elimination of Azhar Malik S/o Riyaz Malik of Multan, Pakistan, who operated with the code name of Abdullah Uni in Kashmir since 2002, was the highest priority target for Police and security forces in Sopore. According to Police records, Uni had operated in Kupwara district from 2002 to 2007. Thereafter, he established a strong base in Sopore and re-organised his group with mobilization of dozens of long surviving guerrillas and fresh recruits.

Uni had planned and executed dozens of successful operations against Police and security forces. Believed to be directly responsible for at least 15 killings--- including that of a Major and two sisters in Sopore and also murder of prominent cleric-politician Maulana Shaukat Ahmed Shah---Abdullah Uni had successfully escaped from over a dozen cordon-and-search operations of Police and armed forces in the last nine years.

SP Sopore revealed that with the help of meticulously planted informants, Police learned late last night that Uni was expected to stay for a night at the residential house of one Tariq Ahmad at Baghat Batpora, close to Degree College in Sopore. As usual, inmates had kept a rear window open which had been identified as Uni’s entry point into the house. Reports pouring in to Police from the neighbourhood described Tariq’s daughter Tabbasum as “either wife or girlfriend” of the Lashkar chief. Some of these reports insisted that the young woman had also delivered a baby at Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar last year.

At around 0900 hours today, Sopore Police, alongwith some units of Rashtriya Rifles 22 Bn, swooped on the locality situated on the northern bank of river Jhelum. During the cordon-and-search operation, Uni scampered out of Tariq’s house and took shelter in an abandoned house. Police and forces zeroed in on the hideout at 1130 hours. Uni lobbed at least six hand grenades and also opened fire from his AK-47 rifle. SP Sopore said that without suffering any collateral damage, Police and Army gunned down Uni when he made his first attempt to escape from the cordoned area. He died on the compound. One AK-47 rifle and one Chinese pistol were recovered from his possession.

SP Sopore said that Police were still in search of Uni’s communication devices and documents but nothing of the sort had been spotted or recovered till late tonight. He said that none of the civilians in the neighbourhood or inmates of Uni’s hideout had been taken into custody for questioning. “But, we will have to interrogate few people, including a woman, to find Uni’s contacts and associates”, Imtiyaz Mir said. He described Uni’s death in the daytime gunfight as the most spectacular achievement of last several years for Police and armed forces. “We are now fully confident to yet again eliminate the last remains of militancy in Sopore in next two or three months”, SP Sopore added.

Director General of J&K Police, Kuldeep Khoda, confirmed to Early Times that Abdullah Uni was Lashar-e-Tayyiba head in J&K and the state’s most wanted militant. He said that Uni was responsible for reviving militancy in Sopore-Kupwara-Bandipore belt of north-eastern Kashmir. DGP and other senior Police officials maintained that Uni had killed over a dozen of people, including a Major and two daughters of a poor labour in Sopore. They claimed that Uni had, among other of LeT’s operations, also planned and ordered killing of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Shaukat Shah in a bomb blast in Srinagar on April 8^th this year.

With intermittent civilian killings by suspected militants, guerrilla attacks on Police and armed forces, Sopore had emerged as a hub of revived insurgency in the last two years. Dreaded militants, including over a dozen foreigners, had established their writ on the apple rich township since middle of 2009 even after Police and forces had uprooted militancy and made it a guerrilla-free area in 2007-08. Sopore also happens to be significant on account of being residential locality of Kashmir’s topmost radical leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

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