General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps Lt Gen JS Sandhu with DGP SP Vaid during a press conference in Srinagar on Sunday.

BANDIPORA GUNFIGHT Six Pak militants including Owaid,

nephew of 26/11 mastermind, were eliminated on Saturday

From page 01 SRINAGAR: The Army said on Sunday that the top leadership of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) in the Kashmir valley has been wiped out with the killing of six militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
WASEEM ANDRABI / HT
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps Lt Gen JS Sandhu with DGP SP Vaid during a press conference in Srinagar on Sunday.
Lieutenant General JS Sandhu, who heads the Srinagar-headquartered 15 Corps, said, “With the elimination of six of its terrorist commanders on Saturday, the top leadership of LeT in the Valley has been wiped out.”
Giving details about Saturday’s operation, he said, “Hajin was an area of concern for us. Terrorists had killed some people in the area. We inducted Special Forces into the area and good intelligence inputs started pouring in. We were keeping Chandegeer village on our radar. These terrorists had been staying there in a house for two to three days.”
The Lt Gen identified one of the terrorists killed as Osama Jungvi or Owaid, a nephew of Zaki-urRehman Lakhvi and probably the son of Zakiur Rehman Makki.
Six Pakistani militants including Owaid and two other top commanders of LeT, Zargar and Mehmood, were killed on Saturday. An IAF commando was also killed in the gunfight.
“We look forward to continue the operations and restore peace in the Valley very soon,” the Lt Gen added.
‘TWO-PRONGED STRATEGY’
“We are working on two lines,” the Lt Gen added. “One is counter terrorism and the second is that we want the local terrorists to return.
“We pulled out and saved an injured militant in Kulgam and saved his life. The local terrorists must realise whether they are ‘Mujahids’ (Islamic fighters) or proxies of Pakistan.”
Jammu and Kashmir director general of police (DGP) SP Vaid
refuted the claims of the Islamic State that claimed that the Zakura attack on Friday in which a police officer and a militant were killed was the first IS attack in Kashmir.
Asked to comment, he said, “No, it is yet to be verified. I don’t think ISIS has any imprint here.” “Kashmir will be free of violence
very soon. Yesterday’s operation has cleaned up the area. I am sure people can now live their lives without any fear of terror,” he added.
Vaid complimented the Army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Police and intelligence agencies for Saturday’s killings of militants.