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LeT commander Lelhari killed in Pulwama encounter

In a major success, security forces on Wednesday killed another most wanted commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Ayub Lelhari in an encounter at…

LeT commander Lelhari killed in Pulwama encounter

Representational image (Photo: Getty Images)

In a major success, security forces on Wednesday killed another most wanted commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Ayub Lelhari in an encounter at Pulwama in the South Kashmir. One Army personnel was injured in the exchange of fire.

This is being considered as a big achievement after killing of Yasin Itoo of Hizbul Mujahideen in Shopian last week.

The police cordoned the Kakpora village after receiving inputs about presence of Ayub  and tried to catch the terrorist. However, he opened fire at the security personnel who retaliated and killed him within minutes.

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“Ayub Lelhari District Commander LeT killed in Pulwama. Yet another success in the fight against militancy,” the state police said on its Twitter handle.

Giving details of the gunfight, police said a ‘naka’ (check post) was set up in Banderpora (Koil) village jointly by Rashtriya Rifles, state police and CRPF after receiving information about the movement of the LeT district commander in the area.

“When the vehicle in which Ayub Lalhari was travelling was signalled to stop, it tried to jump the check post, after which the LeT commander started firing at the security forces,” the police said.

“Two policemen were injured in the initial firing after which an encounter started in which Lelhari was killed,” police said.

The driver of the vehicle has been arrested.

Lelhari had been active in south Kashmir areas and had recently been designated as district commander by the LeT outfit. Police said the gunfight has ended.

On Sunday, top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Yasin Itoo was killed along with two other local militants in a 24 hour-long gunfight in Shopian district.

Yasin Itoo, alias Mehmood Ghaznavi, was the operational commander of the Hizbul. He was one of the senior-most Hizbul militants active in Kashmir and was designated divisional commander after Burhan Wani was killed last year.

On July 1, the security forces killed LeT Commander Bashir Lashkari in a gunfight in Anantnag district, along with another militant.

(With inputs from IANS)

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