Top Lashkar terrorist who had deserted J&K police gunned down in Shopian

New Delhi, July 20: A terrorist of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba who deserted the ranks of the Jammu and Kashmir police four years back has been killed in an encounter in Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir.

Another terrorist was also eliminated in the encounter.

Ishfaq Dar alias Abu Akram was a top terrorist of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Kashmir police IGP, Vijay Kumar said. He had been active within the outfit since 2017.

The operation was launched at Check Sadiq Khan area in Shopian, following a tip off about the presence of terrorists. The cordon and search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired at the security forces. Abu Akram had deserted the police force in 2017.

On July 16, the security forces gunned down two terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in an encounter at the Danmar area of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.

A joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPF joined a cordon and search operation in the Alameda Colony of Danmar following a tip off. The area was then cordoned off by security forces.

This operation comes in the backdrop of another encounter that took place on Wednesday in which three terrorists were killed in Pulwama. While two of those died were locals, the third was Abu Huraira, a commander of Pakistan origin.

With these encounters, the number of terrorists gunned down in the Valley this year has gone up to 80.

Of these 41 were from the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, while the rest were from the Hizbul Mujahideen, Al-Badr, Jaish-e-Mohammad and AuGH, Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar said.