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Indian forces kill top Kashmir militant
SRINAGAR, India, Nov 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Government forces in Indian-
administered Kashmir killed a top commander of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-
Toiba militant group Wednesday during a fierce firefight, police said,
triggering clashes with protestors.
LeT, the proscribed group India blames for the 2008 terror attacks in
Mumbai, is one of the several groups fighting Indian soldiers for decades,
seeking independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan.
Pakistani national Naveed Jatt, the man killed on Wednesday, had
dramatically escaped in February from a hospital in Srinagar where he was
brought from jail for a check-up two years after his arrest.
Two police officers accompanying Jatt — a renowned escape artist only five
feet (1.52 metres) tall — were killed in a shootout inside the hospital
before he was whisked away on a waiting motorbike.
Police also say that Jatt was part of the group of assailants who killed
prominent journalist Shujaat Bukhari in a daring attack inside Srinagar’s
high security press area in June.
Jatt and another militant were killed after they were trapped by soldiers,
paramilitary forces and a police counterinsurgency unit surrounding the
village of Chattergam in the central Kashmir valley.
“It’s a success, a relief. Naveed Jatt is one among the two militants
killed,” top police officer, Munir Ahmad Khan told AFP.
“Jatt murdered two of our colleagues when he escaped (in February),” Khan
said.
Three soldiers were wounded in the gun battle, another police officer said,
adding several protestors who hit the streets near the site of firefight were
also injured in police action.
Violence in Kashmir has left tens of thousands of people dead. This year
has been the bloodiest in nearly a decade with at least 530 killed so far,
including 145 civilians and nearly 400 combatants.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the partition of
the subcontinent following independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the
former Himalayan kingdom in its entirety.
India maintains some 500,000 soldiers in the part of the territory it
controls, and regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels for
attacks on Indian forces.
Islamabad denies this, saying it only provides diplomatic support to a
Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1526 hrs