Tribune News Service
Srinagar, December 5

Even as combing operations are underway in north Kashmir’s Handwara forest, a day after the killing of two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, security forces claim that two to three more militants of the group are still holed up in the area.
Officials engaged in the combing operation in the Bawan Rajwar forest area in Handwara, nearly 90 km from here, said searches in the thick forest were underway and there had been no fresh contact with the holed-up militants since Friday afternoon.
“Two to three militants, who are part of the group, are still holed up in the forest area and we are combing the vast area,” the official said.
He said the group of militants had infiltrated almost a month ago and the group was being chased since November 21.
Two militants of Lashkar and a soldier of the Army’s elite counter insurgency unit Naik Satish Kumar were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district on Friday. One of the slain militants, the Army said, was commander of the group.
An Army officer said besides weapons, a lot of ration was also recovered from the militant hideout in the area after the gunfight.
“We also recovered maps and diaries from the slain militants,” the officer said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, north Kashmir, Gareeb Das said the combing operation was extended to the adjoining areas.
The combing operation in the adjoining Manigam forest of Kupwara district has been continuing for the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, the Lashkar-e-Toiba in a statement to a local news agency in Srinagar said after the taking over of the command by the group’s new chief Abu Musa, alias Hafiz, they had adopted a new strategy.
“Under the changed strategy the cadres of the outfit have engaged security men in various encounters in the past one month, which has resulted in heavy causalities to security forces,” the outfit chief was quoted.