SRINAGAR, Jan 16: Indian troops and police on Monday killed the “main conspirator” behind three bombings in New Delhi in which 66 people died last October, police said on Monday.
Abdullah Bhai alias Abu Huzaifa, a member of the Lashkar-i-Taiba, was killed in a gunbattle in the north of occupied Kashmir, a police spokesman said.
“Abu Huzaifa was the main conspirator in the Delhi bombings,” senior Kashmir police officer K. Rajendra Kumar told reporters at the scene.
He said a co-conspirator called Abu Zar was injured during the fighting but managed to escape and troops were now searching the Baramulla district for him.
Both the militants had planned the bombings in consultation with another Lashkar militant, said Mr Kumar, who identified the militant as Abu Alqama.
In New Delhi Karnal Singh, joint commissioner of police, confirmed that “the main conspirator of the Delhi blasts case had been neutralised.”
But he added: “Our team is still pursuing the case, the operation is still on.”
Mr Kumar said troops and police were also hunting for the accomplices who went to New Delhi to carry out the bombings. “It is a continuing process. We have to get some more people,” he said.
Mr Kumar said the operation was launched after obtaining information from police in New Delhi. “It was a well coordinated operation between the Indian army, Delhi police and our own police force.”
The fighting erupted in the snowbound village of Khour early on Monday after soldiers and police ringed a hideout. A cowshed where the militants had taken refugee was damaged in the fighting.
Protesters in a village are refusing to bury the body of a youth they claim was tortured to death by soldiers until those responsible are punished, police said on Monday.—AFP
