SRINAGAR (RAJEEV SHARMA): A Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant was killed during a security operation in the upper reaches of Central Kashmir, the Army said on Wednesday, bringing an end to a group allegedly linked to several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
The encounter began late Tuesday after security forces launched a joint search operation in the Korag area of Yousmarg. According to the Army, troops noticed suspicious movement during the operation and challenged those present. The militants responded with gunfire, triggering an exchange in which one militant was killed.
A subsequent search of the area led to the recovery of the body of the deceased, whom officials identified as Mohammad Asif, alias Hashim Moosa, a Pakistan-based LeT operative. War-like stores were also recovered from the site.
Officials said Moosa was associated with another militant, identified as Yasir, who had earlier been killed in an operation in the same forested area. The two were allegedly part of a group linked to a number of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
Security officials have attributed the group to attacks in the Jammu region, including the Dera Ki Gali ambush in Poonch, where four Army personnel were killed, as well as an attack targeting an Air Force convoy.
Moosa and Yasir were also described as associates of senior LeT commander Sulaiman Shah, who was killed along with two other militants during a security operation in forests on the outskirts of Srinagar in July 2025.
Following that operation, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that the three militants killed had been involved in the Pahalgam attack, in which 25 tourists and a local resident were killed.
Officials said Moosa was the commander of the group and that his death means all four members have now been eliminated. The other members identified by officials were Sulaiman Shah, Junaid Ahmed Bhat and Yasir.
The group has also been linked by security officials to other attacks. Shah and Junaid were allegedly involved in the Ganderbal tunnel attack in October 2024, while Yasir and Moosa were suspected of involvement in the Butapathri attack near Gulmarg that year. Two soldiers and two civilian porters were killed in the Butapathri incident.
Junaid was subsequently killed during a security operation in the Harwan area near Srinagar in December 2024.
The latest encounter remains part of an ongoing security investigation, with authorities examining the recovered material and the group’s alleged links to previous militant activity in the region.
