Top LeT commander among two killed in Sopore

A top Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) commander and a policeman were killed and four others injured in an overnight gun battle in Sopore town of North Kashmir, police said today.

The gun battle commenced at Bhagat Mohalla, 55km from Srinagar, when militants opened fire on a search party of special operations group (SOG) of local police, around 9.50am yesterday.

A policeman identified as Ghulam Hassan was injured in the firing and was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to injuries, a police spokesperson told PTI.

SOG personnel and security force then tightened the cordon around the house in which the militants were hiding and engaged them.

In the firefight, the militant was killed and four others - two civilians, a policeman and a security personnel - were injured, the spokesperson said.

He said the body of the militant, believed to be a Pakistan national, was recovered from the house this morning.

Sources identified the slain militant as top LeT commander Zubair.

Zubair, who used to be dressed as a Jammu and Kashmir policeman, was involved in several killings, including the gunning down of four CRPF personnel earlier this year.

Security forces suspect that another militant was killed in the encounter and are looking for the body in the debris, sources said.

The search operation was going on in the area when reports last came in. Sopore, which has of late became a hot bed of militancy, witnessed a series of attacks yesterday in which nine persons, including three policemen and five BSNL employees, were injured.

Five BSNL employees and a cart puller were injured when militants lobbed a grenade at the BSNL office at Sopore yesterday.

Earlier, two policemen were injured when heavily-armed ultras attacked a police party in the central area of the town around 10.40am.

In another incident, militants fired three rifle grenades at the camp of 22 Rashtriya Rifles but no one was injured in the attack.