Apart from its political significance and potential diplomatic advantage, the recent arrest of Pakistani militant Muhammad Naved Yakub following a deadly attack on a BSF convoy outside the garrison town of Udhampur has proved a truly “prize catch” for the security forces.
They have on the basis of “valuable information” extracted from him during interrogation carried out a number of operations against the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in the Kashmir Valley, particularly in the southern Pulwama-Shopian-Anantnag-Kulgam belt.
The latest was an encounter with a group of militants that started in Ratnipora area of Pulwama on Monday evening and ended Tuesday afternoon with the killing of a top LeT commander, Showkat Ahmed Lone, and his colleague, Gulzar Ahmed.
On August 6, a similar gun battle resulted in the killing of the outfit’s district commander, Talib Afzal Hussein Shah, alias Omar, in Astan Mohalla of Kakapora area in Pulwama district. However, another militant trapped with Shah escaped.
A couple of other attempts also failed to yield the “desired results” as the militants reportedly named by Naved had already shifted and the locations identified by him were found abandoned when raided. In yet another incident, militants hiding in a private house escaped after a brief encounter.
The security forces have also been able to lay their hands on half a dozen people who had allegedly helped Naved or, as officials claim, are “overground” LeT activists or sympathisers.
