Police foil militant plans to carry out fidayeen attacks in Kashmir

Srinagar, Apr 7 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir police have foiled militant plans to carry out ''fidayeen'' attacks in the Kashmir valley, state Director General of Police (DGP) Gopal Sharma said.

He said specific information was received from different sources recently that militants belong to different outfits are attempting to regroup and launch coordinated ''fidayeen'' and other attacks on vital installations and other important places in the Kashmir valley.

He said police, after working on the tip offs, finally got a vital clue that militant of Pakistan based Al-Badr and Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) had met and decided to carry out a fidayeen attack in the summer capital Srinagar.

He said three of the militants of Al-Badr went to Nishat on April 5 evening. However, Mr Sharma, said before they could carry out the attack, police sealed the area and an exchange of fire took place at 0145 hours which continued till yesterday afternoon.

The police chief said three militants including a sel-styled divisional commander of Al-Badr Abdul Akhter Pahalwan alias Imran, a resident of Rawalpindi, Pakistan were killed.

He said Imran was the brain behind the killing of police, CRPF and BSF pesonnel during 2005-06 in south Kashmir.

Mr Sharma said another slain militant Rameez Ahmad Mala alias Abu Taib, a local resident, was involved in the killing of four police pesonnel at Litter in Pulwama and attack on a vehicle in which one soldier died in February this year.

The third militant Gulzar Ahmad Dar alias Abu Saifullah was also wanted in a number of militancy-related incidents, he said.

The DGP said three ak rifles, six magAzines, one grenade, Rs five in Pakistani currency, one wireless set and 111 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the slain militants.

Two state police personnel identified as Sub-Inspector Ghulam Mushtafa and constable Kifatullah were injured in the operation.

He said operation against other fidayeen group of LeT was still going on in south Kashmir.

Mr Sharma said situation has improved and there were less number of militancy-related incidents against previous years.

Last year, militants carried out grenade attacks at crowded places, pistol attacks and few ''fidayeen'' and car bomb blasts.

When asked about the number of militants active in the valley, he said two militants are enough to carry out 'fidayeen' on any installation.

Militants now avoid direct contact with the security forces and us ''innocent'' boys to throw grenades at crowded places, he said.

He said 18,000 militants were released during the past ten years.

Without given the number, he said, only minimum rejoined militancy.

UNI