Senior LeT militant commander shot dead in disputed Kashmir
Indian security forces have shot dead a high-ranking commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group during an exchange of gunfire in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Inspector General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani said on Thursday that Indian police forces launched an operation in Kulgam town, situated 89 kilometers (55 miles) south of Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, late on Wednesday after a tip-off that the extremist, identified as Abdul Rehman, better known as Abu Qasim, was in the area.
Gillani added that Abu Qasim was killed as he tried to break through the police cordon, and flee the region early on Thursday.
Abu Qasim was highly mobile, and had been operating in Indian-administered Kashmir against security forces for the last five years. He had been motivating, recruiting and training militants, and was responsible for several major attacks in the mountainous Himalayan region, police said.
There was no independent confirmation or comments from the LeT.
Pakistan and India have been engaged in hostility over Kashmir since their independence from the British colonial rule and their partition in 1947.
The two neighbors have fought two wars over the mountainous region as the arch-rivals both lay claim to the entire territory. Each controls parts of it, though. Pakistan controls one-third of Kashmir, with the remaining two-thirds being under Indian control.
Islamabad and New Delhi agreed on a ceasefire in 2003, and launched a peace process the following year. Since then, there have been sporadic clashes, with each side accusing the other of violating the ceasefire.
Thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir clashes over the past two decades.
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