SRINAGAR, April 3: Indian police have captured a top leader of the largest militant group in occupied Kashmir in one of their most important recent arrests, an official said on Thursday.

Abdul Khaliq Dar, a top commander and chief spokesman for Hizbul Mujahideen, was arrested early Thursday in Srinagar, said B. Srinivas, the deputy inspector-general of police.

“He’s been part of the group’s many conspiracies and sensational militant actions in Kashmir,” Srinivas told reporters.

He said the arrest of Dar, who also uses the name Junaid-ul-Islam, followed the capture of three other Hizbul Mujahideen members in a hideout in a village in northern Kashmir two days ago.

It is extremely rare for a militant commander to be caught alive in the region. Most have been killed in gunbattles.

Srinivas said Dar trained and ideologically motivated Mujahideen in Kashmir.

Dar’s arrest will be a “great dent in the organising and military capabilities” of Hizbul-Mujahideen, Srinivas said.

Dar, a 47-year-old Kashmiri with postgraduate studies in Arabic literature, joined the freedom struggle in 1990, the officer said.

Early on Thursday, two militants and a civilian were killed in a gun battle in northern Kashmir, police said.—Agencies