Indian forces said they shot dead a top leader of the alleged group Jaish-e-Mohammad in a clash on Monday. The Pakistani national known only as Khalid was trapped in a house after throwing a grenade at a police checkpoint in the northern village of Ladoora, they claimed.
Khalid has been accused of organising a string of suicide attacks across Indian-held Kashmir. "He was one of the most wanted militants and the chief operational commander of JeM," Held Kashmir inspector-general of police, Muneer Ahmed Khan, told AFP. "He threw a grenade at the checkpoint which failed to explode. He then fired a pistol and took refuge in a nearby house where he was killed."
Police said Khalid had planned suicide attacks in Muslim-majority Kashmir, including one on a paramilitary camp near Occupied Srinagar Airport on October 3 in which one soldier and three attackers were killed. In August JeM said it staged a raid on a police base in the southern town of Pulwama in which eight security force members died.