Laskar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan based militant organisation has appointed its new poster boy Junaid Matto as the commander of operations in south Kashmir.
According to an India Today report, Matto has been appointed as the new head after outfit’s local commander Majid Zargar, along with two other Militants, were Killed in an encounter with security forces last week in Kulgam.
According to reports, Junaid Matto joined militancy rank in 2014 when youths in Kashmir followed the popularity of hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on social media.
Matto came into the limelight when a CCTV footage went viral which showed him attacking a police post in Anantnag on June 4 this year. Two policemen were killed in the attack.
According to the report, security agencies believe that he had also carried out attack on a BSF bus just 12 hours before the Anantnag attack. The bus was attacked on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in which 3 BSF men got killed and 7 others were injured.
Since then he has been on the radar of security agencies and has a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head.
The report also claimed that security agencies have also confirmed that most-wanted Lashkar commander Abu Dujana is surviving only due to the support from these local Lashkar militants and is the mastermind behind most of the attacks by Lashkar in the Valley.
In November this year, security forces in Jammu and Kashmir had arrested top Lashkar operative Omar Khaliq from Sopore district.
This story was first published in India Today