Two top militants of the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Tayiba outfit, including a self-styled district commander involved in the killing of nine labourers on Monday, were killed in a two-hour gunbattle in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday, a defence spokesman said.
LeT Pulwama district commander Sameer Ahmad Mir alias Abu Saqib was killed along with a foreign militant at Namalbal area of Pampore on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the spokesman said.
The spokesman identified the foreigner as LeT group commander, Tral, Omar Qasim alias Amir and said he was the mastermind in the attack on army convoy at Awantipora on September 10, last year.
Describing the killing of the two militants as a major success, he said after being informed, troops laid a cordon at a hideout near the national highway. While the cordon was being laid, the party was fired upon by militants from the hideout. The ultras then ran out of the hideout to the fields and into a stream, the spokesman said adding they lobbed a number of grenades on the troops and a fierce fire fight for about two hours ensued in which both the militants were killed.
One AK 56 rifle, four magazines, 35 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, two magazines and 12 rounds have been recovered from the dead militants, the spokesman said. He said an army jawan was also injured in the encounter and hospitalised.