Lashkar commander Saifullah from Pakistan, local militant trapped in Barzullah: IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar

Lashkar commander Saifullah from Pakistan, local militant trapped in Barzullah: IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar

‘Saifullah infiltrated this year, shifted base from north to South Kashmir two months ago, He was involved in Kandizaal, Pampore attack, Ops will take time’

Abid Bashir

Srinagar, Oct 12 (KNO): Two militants including a Lashkar-e-Toiba commander from Pakistan and a local militant from South Kashmir is trapped in Barzulla area of Srinagar and the operation to neutralize both the militants is underway, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar said Monday.

Talking to reporters near the encounter site, the IGP said that two militants including LeT commander Saifullah and another local militant from Sout Kashmir are trapped and the operation is going on.

“Saifullah was involved in the attack on CRPF on September 24 in which ASI of CRPF was killed. He was also involved in the killing of two CRPF men and injuring three at Kandizaal, Pampore,” the IGP said, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

He said Saifullah had infiltrated into Kashmir this year only and was first operating in north Kashmir and since past two months, he was operating in South Kashmir,” the IGP said.

He said no militant has been killed in the operation so far and the operation is underway. “It will take time as we are avoiding collateral damage,” the Kashmir Police chief said. He said yesterday evening, police received a specific input about presence of Lashkar commander Safiullah and a local militant from South Kashmir. “We laid a cordon and the militant got trapped,” he said.

He said the many civilians were evacuated from the area which is congested. “We offered them to surrender as that’s part of our Standard Operating Procedure (SoP), but they refused and fired triggering a gunbattle,” the IGP said—(KNO)