A “hybrid” terrorist of Lashkar-e-Taiba, accompanying a police party for identifying a hideout, was killed in an encounter between security forces and ultras in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, police said.
“Hybrid” terrorists are not listed as ultras but are radicalised enough to carry out a terror strike and then slip back into routine life.
The “hybrid” terrorist, Sajad Ahmad Tantray alias Furqan, a resident of Shirpora in Kulgam, was involved in the killing of a non-local labourer at Rakhmomen in Anantnag’s Bijbehara on November 12, a police spokesperson said.
He was arrested and during questioning, he confessed to his involvement in the labourer’s killing. At his instance, a pistol used in the commission of the terror crime was recovered, the spokesperson said.
Tantray also revealed information about the presence of terrorists in Bijbehara’s Cheki Duddo area, he added.
On the basis of information provided by Tantray, the police said, a search and cordon operation was launched in Cheki Dudoo. As the search party approached the hideout, it came under heavy firing from the hiding terrorists and Tantray was critically injured.
He was immediately shifted to a hospital in Bijbehara where doctors declared him brought dead, they said.
The spokesperson said the cordon in the entire area has been strengthened with the help of reinforcements and the search operation is underway.
Tantray was earlier a terrorist associate of LeT and was involved in various crimes regarding which cases were registered. He was also detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) from June 2019 to December 2019, the spokesperson said.