SRINAGAR: Security forces in J&K shot dead “category A” Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Zakir Ganie during a gunfight in Shopian district’s Chanapora Wednesday, nearly 10 months after the last such encounter in the region.The joint operation by J&K Police, the Army and CRPF was launched Saturday evening based on intelligence about terrorists hiding in the area, officials said.A senior police officer said Ganie, a resident of Kulgam district, joined Pakistan-based LeT in Dec 2023 and was involved in multiple terror attacks across J&K. “You can run but you can’t hide! One Lashkar terrorist neutralised by SOG Shopian in a joint operation with the RR and CRPF,” J&K Police wrote on its official X handle.DGP Nalin Prabhat and other senior officers visited the site to take stock. Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores were found at the site, the Army said.Security forces’ last encounter with terrorists in south Kashmir took place on Sept 9 last year, when two soldiers and two LeT operatives, one of them a Pakistani, died in a shootout in the Gader forest of Kulgam.The operation in which Ganie was killed coincided with the arrest of three OGWs – short for overground workers of terrorist outfits – in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district based on data generated through police’s facial recognition system.An officer said these arrests demonstrated the “effectiveness of advanced surveillance technology deployed for the ongoing Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra”. The suspects were passing through Sarbal in Anantnag when they appeared on police’s radar.
