SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The head of Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) Dawood Ahmad Sofi (33) and three other terrorists who were allegedly planning to attack pilgrims during the upcoming Amarnath Yatra, were taken out by security forces in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Friday. The operations also marked the debut of NSG commandos in the Valley.
Sources in the Union Home Ministry and the security forces claimed a terror attack plot had been foiled because of the encounter.
Director General of Police S P Vaid said security forces laid siege around Nowshahar Khiram in Srigufwara early on Friday morning based on a tip-off. While conducting house to house searches, the security forces came under fire from terrorists holed up in a two-storey house. In the ensuing encounter, four terrorists, house owner Mohammad Yousuf Rather and policeman Ashiq Hussain were killed.
Srigufwara village is en route to the Amarnath shrine. Sources said they had information that four ISJK men were planning an attack on Amarnath Yatra.
“We have averted that,” said a senior security official.
“Dawood was a stone pelter who joined militancy a few years ago. He was affiliated with Tehrek-ul-Mujahideen, which was later renamed as ISJK,” sources said.
A police official said while there was no organised ISIS infrastructure in the state, there were some who were influenced by it.
Besides the recovery of arms and ammunition from the encounter site, some incriminating materials were seized, the official said.