Basit Dar among 2 terrorists killed in Kulgam encounter: IGP Kashmir

Srinagar, May 7: Wanted terrorist commander Basit Dar along with another terrorist were killed in a night-long anti-terror operation in the Kulgam district of south Kashmir, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vidhi Kumar Birdi said Tuesday.

The encounter broke out in the Redwani Payeen area of Kulgam on Monday evening after 1 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K Police, and Central Reserve Police Force cordoned off the area on specific inputs of the presence of terrorists in the area.

Soon after the cordon was established, terrorists opened fire at the joint parties and tried to escape from the area.

However, the fire was retaliated, forcing the terrorists to take positions in a residential house.

In the meantime, more reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the cordon was tightened.

For the entire night, intermittent exchange of fire continued.

The joint parties appealed to the terrorists to surrender, however, they refused.

On Tuesday morning, the operation fully resumed and in the afternoon, the bodies of two terrorists were recovered.

One among them was identified as Basit Dar, the operational commander of Lashker-e-Toiba offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF) while the identity of another is being ascertained.

Basit Dar, active since April 2021, was one of the most wanted terrorists by J&K Police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) on whom an award of Rs 10 lakh was announced.

According to police, he was involved in scores of terror crimes including targeted killings in Srinagar and other places of Kashmir.

Soon after the encounter concluded, IGP Kashmir Birdi visited the spot and said that security forces got inputs about the movement of terrorists in the area, following which a CASO was launched on Monday night.

“The area was cordoned off and a search was launched. There was fire from the other end and the operation started. Cordon was maintained throughout the night,” he told reporters.

Birdi said that the terrorists were allowed to surrender, but, they did not heed the offer and continued firing on the security personnel.

“Two terrorists have been killed in this operation and their bodies have been retrieved, but the search operation is going on,” he said.

The IGP Kashmir said that one of the killed terrorists had been identified as Basit Dar, an ‘A’ category terrorist who belonged to TRF – an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Describing Dar’s killing as a significant achievement, Birdi said Dar was involved in 18 cases including in Srinagar city. “He was involved in the killing of police personnel and innocent civilians. He was involved in planning and carrying out attacks including on minority community members.”

On 14 Jul last year (2023), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced a cash bounty of Rs 10 lakh on TRF terrorist commander Basit Dar.

The reward money was announced in case 32/2021/NIA/DLI registered against Basit Dar of Redwani Payeen, Kulgam in south Kashmir.

According to officials, Basit was the mastermind behind the spat of civilian killings in October.

Basit, a resident of Redwani’s Kulgam, who had been missing from his home since April last year joined The Resistance Front (TRF), a front organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Meanwhile, mopping in the area is underway and the identification of another terrorist was ascertained as Faheem Ahmad from Redwani, a hybrid terrorist.