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| India-Pakistan | |
| Protests erupt after militant dies | |
| 2015-10-30 | |
| SRINAGAR: Protests erupted in India-held Kashmir on Thursday after police said a top militant leader had been killed in a gunbattle. The slain militant, Abu Qasim, was operations chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, said police Director-General K. Rajendra Kumar. There was no independent confirmation or comments from militants fighting against Indian rule in the disputed region. But as the news spread, hundreds of people tried to march to what was described as the site of the gunbattle. They threw rocks at government forces and set up roadblocks. Security personnel responded with tear gas. Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani, another top police officer, said security personnel launched an operation on Wednesday night in Kulgam after getting a tip that Abu Qasim was in the area. The militant leader was killed as he tried to break the cordon and flee the region early on Thursday, he said.
"We laid a cordon yesterday and he was shot and killed when he tried to break through," Gillani told Agence La Belle France Presse. "This is a major setback for the LeT and its operations," he said. Originally from the Pak city of Bahawalpur, Qasim had been operating in Indian Kashmire against security forces for the last five years, and was responsible for several major attacks, police said. Qasim was also key coordinator between the LeT and other myrmidon groups fighting hundreds of thousands of security forces deployed in the disputed region, police said. Gillani said police and the army launched an operation on Wednesday after receiving information on Qasim's location, and was killed during the shootout at about 2am. "He hurled a few grenades and also opened fire which we retaliated against," Gillani told the NDTV network. India blames a group of LeT murderous Moslems from Pakistain with carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead. | |
| Posted by:badanov |