Mumbai plotter Lakhvi’s kin among 6 Lashkar ultras shot

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 18

Six Pakistani militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba, including the son of Abdul Rehman Makki, the second-in-command of Jamat ud Dawah, and nephew of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is believed to have masterminded the Mumbai terror attacks, were killed in a fierce gunfight in north Kashmir’s Bandipore district today. A Garud commando of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was killed too and and another soldier injured.

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“Six Pakistani Lashkar terrorists have been eliminated. One of them, named Owaid alias Osama, is son of Zakir Rehman Maki and nephew of Zakir Rehman Lakhvi, the Mumbai terror attacks mastermind,” state Director-General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid said. He said Owais had been active in the area since last year.

He identified the other killed militants as Zargam and Mehmood. The latter, the police said, was involved in the killing of BSF constable Mohommad Ramzan Parrey alias Rameez on September 27 as well as of two Garud commandos.

The gunfight at Chandrageer Hajin, 32 km from Srinagar, erupted when joint teams of the police, Army and CRPF cordoned a sparsely populated locality following reports that militants had taken refuge there.

“As soon as the search operation was launched, militants hiding in various houses opened fire to break the cordon. In the gunfight, six of them were killed,” Srinagar-based Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Khalia said. " An Air Force Garud commando was martyred and one soldier injured," he added.

Hajin, once known as the epicentre of pro-government militant group Ikhwan, had of late turned Lashkar headquarters with Hajin witnessing frequent gunfights between militants and forces in recent months. Last month, two IAF Garud commandos were killed in an encounter in which two militants, one of them a local, were eliminated too.

Owaid is Lashkar chief Lakhvi's third close relative to have been killed in Kashmir. In 2007, Lakhvi’s son Mohammad Qasim,20, was killed in Bandipore's Gamroo village. In January this year, his nephew Abu Musaib was shot dead in a gunfight. Recently, Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Hafiz Sayeed's nephew was killed in a gunfight in Pulwama, south Kashmir.