By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The police here Wednesday denied that the suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrillas killed in the Kashmir valley early this week were from Kerala.
Inspector General of Police Arun Kumar Sinha told IANS that the Jammu and Kashmir police had recovered an identity card from the possession of one of the slain militants identifying him as Mohammed Sakeer of Malapurram in Kerala.
But, he said, “Sakeer is very much in Malappuram and we also made detailed inquires in Kovalam where reports suggested that another militant belonged to the area”.
“Our detailed inquires have revealed that there is no Kerala connection of the two killed by the Jammu and Kashmir police,” Sinha said.
The police in Jammu and Kashmir claimed to have killed the two guerrillas from Kerala in separate shootouts this week – the first time since 1989 that militants from another state have been killed in the terror torn state.
The slain terrorists, having code names Yasin and Fayaz, were killed Monday and Tuesday in joint operations of the police and the army in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
B. Srinivas, inspector general of police (Kashmir Zone), said: “We have killed two terrorists in two separate encounters earlier this week, both of whom belong to Kerala.”