SRINAGAR: A Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist allegedly involved in a series of killings of soldiers, migrant workers, and Pandits over the past year was gunned down Friday in an encounter in Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Bilal Ahmed Bhat fired on a joint team ofpolice, army and CRPF personnel when they cornered him at a hideout during a cordon-and-search operation in Shopian’s Chotigam area, triggering the gun battle, police said.
His body was later seized along with a large cache that included an AK rifle, magazines and other incriminating material, the police said. Bilal was a resident of Chek Cholan in Shopian and was around 25 years old.
According to the police, Bilal had unleashed a spate of attacks, targeting a variety of people in his reign of terror in the Valley last year. He was allegedly involved in the killing of Umer Fayaz, an army man from Kulgam’s Sudsan area.
Bilal was also accused of hurling grenades on two migrant labourers in Shopian’s Hermain, killing them both. Bilal’s name had also cropped up when a Kashmiri Pandit, Sunil Kumar Bhat, was killed in Shopian and two others were attacked and seriously injured in separate episodes.
According to the police, Bilal lured at least 12 local youths to take to terror. He did not even spare members of his own tribe if he saw them as a threat, killing an arrested terrorist helping security forces search for insurgents at Nowgam in 2022, the police said.
At the encounter site in Chotigam on Friday, the villagers have been requested to co-operate with the security forces till the area is completely sanitised and cleared of any possible hidden explosives, the police said.
Bilal Ahmed Bhat fired on a joint team ofpolice, army and CRPF personnel when they cornered him at a hideout during a cordon-and-search operation in Shopian’s Chotigam area, triggering the gun battle, police said.
His body was later seized along with a large cache that included an AK rifle, magazines and other incriminating material, the police said. Bilal was a resident of Chek Cholan in Shopian and was around 25 years old.
According to the police, Bilal had unleashed a spate of attacks, targeting a variety of people in his reign of terror in the Valley last year. He was allegedly involved in the killing of Umer Fayaz, an army man from Kulgam’s Sudsan area.
Bilal was also accused of hurling grenades on two migrant labourers in Shopian’s Hermain, killing them both. Bilal’s name had also cropped up when a Kashmiri Pandit, Sunil Kumar Bhat, was killed in Shopian and two others were attacked and seriously injured in separate episodes.
According to the police, Bilal lured at least 12 local youths to take to terror. He did not even spare members of his own tribe if he saw them as a threat, killing an arrested terrorist helping security forces search for insurgents at Nowgam in 2022, the police said.
At the encounter site in Chotigam on Friday, the villagers have been requested to co-operate with the security forces till the area is completely sanitised and cleared of any possible hidden explosives, the police said.