SRINAGAR: A terrorist killed by security forces on Friday after a two-day anti-terror operation in the Budgam area of the Kashmir valley has been identified as a member of the banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The forces killed Pakistani terrorist Yasir in a gunfight in the Ashdar Gali area of the upper reaches of the forest area of Yousmarg in Budgam.
According to the police, Yasir was killed on the second day of the operation. Security personnel are searching for one or two more terrorists, who were with Yasir when the group was trapped in the dense forest area on Thursday evening. A security official said the elite special forces were assisting the troops in the operation, while drones and other surveillance equipment were being deployed to maintain aerial monitoring of the forest area.
Sources privy to the matter termed the killing of Yasir as a major setback for the LeT and success for security forces. Yasir, they said, had planned and executed at least five attacks on security forces and civilians in the last few years, in which 12 Army men and an IAF personal and nine civilians were killed. “He was involved in the May 4, 2024, attack on an IAF convoy at Shahsitar in Poonch, in which an IAF personnel was killed and four others were injured,” sources said. They added that he was also linked to an attack on the Army in the Buta Pathri area of Gulmarg sector in Baramulla district on October 24, 2024, in which two Army men and two porters were killed.
Yasir was also involved in an attack on an Army convoy at Buta Durian in Poonch on April 20, 2023, in which five soldiers were killed. “He was also involved in an ambush on the Army at Dera ki Gali, Surankote, in Poonch on December 21, 2023, in which four soldiers were killed,” the sources said. Yasir targeted construction workers on October 20, 2024, in Gagangir in Sonamarg in central Kashmir, killing six of them along with a local doctor.
Sources in the know said Yasir had been operating in the upper reaches of Rajouri and Poonch border districts with another LeT commander Musa for the last few years.
However, after intensified counter-terror operations and tighter security measures taken by security forces, the duo crossed the Pir Panjal range and shifted their activities to the Kashmir valley, taking shelter in the upper reaches of Budgam and Pulwama. They said security agencies had kept Yasir and Musa under their radar, and, on Thursday, they were trapped in a dense forest area of Yousmarg.
Trail of terror
Yasir (above) was involved in April 20, 2023, attack on an Army convoy at Buta Durian, in which five soldiers were killed
He was involved in the December 21, 2023, ambush on the Army at Dera Ki Gali in Surankote, Poonch, in which four soldiers were killed
He had a hand in the May 4, 2024, attack on an IAF convoy at Shahsitar, Poonch, in which one IAF personnel was killed and four injured
Yasir was linked to the October 24, 2024, attack on the Army in Buta Pathri, Gulmarg, in which two soldiers and two porters were killed