On Friday, top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Azad Ahmad Malik along with five other terrorists were killed in an encounter by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The encounter took place in Sutkipora village of the district’s Bijbehara area.
The LeT commander Azad Ahmad Malik is believed to have been involved in the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari. Malik was LeT’s district commander for Anantnag.
Shujaat Bukhari was the Chief Editor of Rising Kashmir and he was known for his sympathetic views towards the separatists. The senior journalist had welcomed the Centre’s decision to impose a unilateral ceasefire on security operations during the month of Ramzan. Welcoming the suspension of operations he had said that the ceasefire announcement “came as a glimmer of hope for the common people who have been suffering due to the continuous grind of violence”. Little did he know that he would fall prey to terrorists against whom operations were suspended.
On 14 June, Shujaat Bukhari and his two guards were killed by LeT terrorists outside Rising Kashmir office in Srinagar. J&K Police had then released CCTV footage of three terrorists on a motorcycle and said that Naveed Jatt, a Pakistani citizen, and two local terrorists— Malik and Muzaffar Ahmad alias Talha from Qazigund — were behind the killing of Shujaat Bukhari.
The blame for the murder of Shujaat Bukhari was tried to be placed on Bharatiya Janata Party and the security forces by liberals and the separatist supporters in the Kashmir Valley. The cabal tried to involve Anand Ranganathan and Madhu Kishwar into the brutal killing of Shujaat Bukhari.
The dispatched terrorists have been identified as Azad Ahmad Malik alias Dada of Arwani, Basit Mir of Khanabal, Unais/Anees of Takyibal, Bijbehara, Aqib of Waghama Bijbehara, Shahid from Awantipora and Firdaus Ahmad of Machpona, Pulwama.
In one of the most successful operations of this year so far six Lashkar militants killed.Operation was launched last night on a hideout in foothills of Waghama Sutkipora of Bijbeihara Anantnag. Six dead bodies of militants and six rifles recovered.
— J&K Police (@JmuKmrPolice) November 23, 2018
India Today has quoted a senior police officer saying, “Yes, Azad Ahmad is one of the terrorists killed in this encounter today.” Azad Ahmad along with LeT commander Naveed Jhat had prepared the plot to kill Shujaat Bukhari. Jhat- a Paksitani National- is a proven criminal who had fled from the busy SMHS hospital in February this year; being an LeT operative, he is known to be dangerous.
A police statement said, “Based on an input about the presence of terrorists, a cordon and search operation was launched by a joint team of police and security forces at the onset of dawn today, inside the forest area of Shalgund-Sutkipora at Bijbehara in Anantnag district.” According to police, “All the killed six terrorists were wanted by the law for their complicity in a series of terror crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities.” The statement further said, “huge quantity of arms & ammunition including 4 AK47 rifles and one Insas rifle were recovered from the site of the encounter.”
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps, A K Bhat, said: “It was a surgical operation in which there was complete cooperation between Army and police. This encounter was carried out in little time, with no casualty and no civilian damage. That is why police are saying it was a successful operation.”