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2026-08-06 India-Pakistan
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Only 1 active local terrorist left in J&K; hunt on for Mohammed Lateef Bhat
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[HindustanTimes] Around five years ago, security agencies estimated there were 50-60 active local terrorists. In May 2025, official records showed 17 active local terrorists.
Jammu & Kashmir
 ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir . The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
now has just one active local terrorist left, according to records maintained by security agencies including the police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), with officers mounting an intensive hunt for Kulgam resident Mohammed Lateef Bhat, whom Sherlocks suspect was behind the killing of two migrant workers from Chhattisgarh, the July 22 shooting of a head constable and plans to target the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, said people aware of the matter.
People familiar with the matter said updated security records show there is now only one active local terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir, compared with 40-50 foreign holy warriors operating across the Union territory, said a security officer.
1 LOCAL ACTIVE TERRORIST LEFT
Around five years ago, security agencies estimated there were 50-60 active local terrorists. As recently as May 2025, official records showed 17 active local holy warriors -- 14 in Kashmir and three in Jammu -- along with around 60 foreign holy warriors said the official cited above.
The fall in local recruitment is due to the crackdown by security forces on one hand and National Investigation Agency (NIA) probes over the past few years that have throttled groups that were allegedly funding terrorism. In the last two years, a massive crackdown on terror financing and narco terrorism was launched by the NIA.
According to security officials, Bhat escaped during a joint operation by the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF in which security forces killed Zakir Ahmed Ganei, a Category A Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned , always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...>
terrorist, on July 8 in a forested area of Anantnag district.
PART OF OPERATION SHERUWALI
Officials said Ganei and Bhat were moving through the area when security forces intercepted them.
"The joint operation was launched then because of intelligence inputs that Ganei and Bhatt, who worked together, planned to disrupt the Amarnath Yatra. This was part of Operation Sheruwali launched jointly by the forces. Bhatt managed to flee the cordon while Ganei was neutralised. Since then, security forces have pinned his involvement on the July 22 killing of the J&K head constable and the recent killing of the two migrants colonists. He is the most wanted across J&K," a senior security force officer said, adding that Bhatt is also being aided by other locals.
Officials also pointed to similarities between the July 22 killing of head constable Ashiq Hussain and that of the two migrants colonists Bhupendra Bhaina and Deepak Ratre on Friday. The assailant in both cases was wearing a cap and carried the weapon in a gunny bag.
Eyewitnesses told Sherlocks that the assailant in both cases fired at point-blank range.
Security agencies say little is known about how Bhatt joined the LeT, a poster circulated on social media by unidentified handles shows his joining the Kashmir Revolution Army (KRA) on November 17, 2025.
"All these months he was working with Lashkar commander Ganei. He has escaped twice, first during a similar joint operation launched in Anantnag district in the last week of December 2025. Ganei and Bhatt are both from the same district in south Kashmir’s Kulgam. Ganei had left his house in 2023.
Bhatt had left his house for some months in early 2025. This must be the period when he got radicalised and inducted into the KRA," said the officer quoted earlier, adding that KRA is an LeT offshoot, similar to the Resistance® Front, which LeT formed to deflect attention from Pakistain.
Kulgam terror attack: Initial probe points to local Lashkar operative
[HindustanTimes] The initial investigation into the Kelam terror attack in Kulgam in which two labourers from Chhattisgarh were killed has pointed towards the involvement of a local terrorist associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the attack, police said.
Soon after the attack on Friday evening, police and the army arrived at the spot. According to initial findings, officials believe that only one terrorist was involved in the attack, though they have not ruled out the possibility of more holy warriors being involved.
An official privy to the details said that eyewitnesses and family members of the two labourers told Sherlocks that only one terrorist had barged into the brick kiln in the disguise of a civilian and then opened fire on the two labourers. "There were many labourers and even the owner present inside the brick kiln when a terrorist, disguised as a civilian, entered. After casually talking with the labourers, he opened fire on them and fled from the spot," the officer said.
Officials suspect that the terrorist who opened fire on the labourers could be Lateef Bhat, who hails from Kulgam in south Kashmir. Officials said that Bhat became active last year and has been operating in south Kashmir for over a year. Though he was already on the police radar, the police have so far been unable to trace him. "We are also trying to find out whether Bhat was involved in the killing of the policeman in Anantnag," said an officer.
The two back-to-back attacks within a span of one week in south Kashmir, where security was on high alert due to the Amarnath Yatra, have shaken the security establishment. Officers are holding back-to-back review meetings in all four districts of South Kashmir.
On Saturday, J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level security review meeting in Srinagar and instructed officials to conduct a comprehensive review of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) established to protect labourers from outside Jammu and Kashmir.
After the two attacks in South Kashmir — the first terror attacks since the Pahalgam terror attack last year in which 25 tourists were killed in Baisaran security across the Valley has been put on high alert, especially as there are a large number of non-locals working in the Valley, besides tourists present on a daily basis.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase...
the cremation of both labourers was done in the Valley itself after receiving consent from family members. J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah has announced an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh each for both labourers, who had come to Kashmir to earn their livelihood.
Following the attack, police are also reviewing the security of all brick kilns in the Valley, especially those where non-local people are working in large numbers.
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Posted by trailing wife 2026-08-06 2026-08-06 02:20||
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