New Delhi, January 08: The Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists, who were killed by security forces during a 23-hour siege at Lal Chawk in Srinagar, were in constant touch with their handlers in Pakistan when they were holed up inside a hotel there.
According to highly-placed sources in the Union Home Ministry, nearly 700 terrorists, half of them foreign mercenaries, are active in Jammu and Kashmir.
They said some more attacks were expected to take place as the holed up militants at the hotel in Lal Chowk area had communicated the same to their handlers in Pakistan, the sources said.
According to the official data available with the Home Ministry, 413 infiltration attempts were made from across the border during which 93 terrorists were killed while 110 managed to sneak in.
Out of the 110 who had infiltrated, 70 per cent were foreign militants while the remaining locals.
The attacks in Srinagar was a result of shifting of focus of the police forces towards Jammu, which is the winter capital of the state, a senior official of the Home Ministry said.
23-hour siege
Security forces stormed the hotel in Lal Chowk area killing two LeT terrorists including a Pakistani, ending a 22-hour fierce gunbattle that also left a policeman and a civilian dead.
At least 11 persons including two CRPF jawans were injured in the encounter, the first this year, which paralysed life in the heart of the city.
“The encounter is over. Two terrorists of Lashker-e-Taiba including a Pakistani have been killed,” Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda told reporters at the scene of the gunbattle.
The Pakistani terrorist was identified by security agencies through wireless intercepts as Qari while the other was named as Usman from Sopore.
Security forces had a tough time dousing the fire that erupted in Hotel Panjab even as the terrorists lobbed grenades and opened indiscriminate firing at them.
While a CRPF jawan was killed yesterday in the firing, an injured civilian identified as Mohammad Akbar Lone succumbed to his wounds today.
–Agencies