Top Al-Badr militant gunned down in Kashmir

NI Wire

New Delhi

Wed, 28 Jan 2009: 

One of the most wanted terrorists Abu Hamza, a top commander of the Al-Badr terror outfit, was gunned down on Wednesday in a fierce encounter between terrorists and security forces in Sopore, north Kashmir. Another unidentified militant was also killed in a separate encounter which is still in progress.

The amp;K police assisted by Rashtriya Rifles Jawans launched a combing and search operation on Tuesday at around 4 pm acting on a tip off that Hamza along with one another terrorist were holed up inside a house in Amargarh village.

The gun battle which lasted for about 16 hours left Hamza killed, while it could not be confirmed the other terrorist was killed or managed to flee.

Also, a jawan of 52 Rashtriya Rifles was killed in the gun battle, while another jawan suffered injuries.

SSP Baramulla Anand Jain had earlier confirmed that state police, CRPF and Rashtriya Rifles jawans in a joint operation had laid a siege around the area on a tip off that militants could be holed up there and launched a combing and search operation.

Fearing trap, the holed up militants opened fire on the security forces which was retaliated by the latter triggering a fierce encounter. Firing ended with the killing of Abu Hamza.

Abu Hamza was earlier in-charge of Baramulla district as a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and was presently taking care of Al-Badr, a militant outfit in north Kashmir from past one month, an officer said. He is believed to have masterminded many terrorist attacks in India.

Meanwhile, two more encounters are going on in north Kashmir. The one is taking place at village Bakihara in Handrawa area of Kupwara district where two militants were supposed to be holed up, an unidentified militant was killed while two security men were reportedly injured today; and another is still in progress in Bandipore district till the last report came.