JAMMU: J&K Police have intensified the hunt for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s self-styled commander Mohammad Lateef Bhat, putting up “wanted” posters with his photograph at key police checkposts and public spaces across Kashmir Valley and Jammu division.
Police announced a cash reward of Rs 15 lakh for credible information leading to Bhat’s arrest, assuring that the identity of informers would be kept confidential.
Bhat is the key accused in the killing of a policeman in a targeted attack last month in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, which shares a border with the hilly district of Doda in Jammu region via Kapran-Desa route. Police believe the terrorist was also involved in the murder of two migrants in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district last week.
Bhat had managed to escape the security cordon during the five-day-long Shopian encounter in which security forces gunned down top Lashkar commander Zakir Ganai, an A++ category terrorist, on July 3. The two ultras were holed up in an orchard when surveillance cameras captured their movement.