Authorities demolished the houses of two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district overnight, hours after a police head constable was shot dead while on security duty for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, officials said on Thursday.
The residential houses, identified by officials as belonging to active militants Adil Thokar in Bijbehara and Haroon Rashid Ganaie in Hasanpora, were razed during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday as security forces intensified operations following the attack.
The demolitions came after Head Constable Ashiq Hussain was shot dead by a suspected militant near Lal Chowk in Anantnag on Wednesday afternoon. Hussain was deployed on security duty for the Amarnath Yatra, one of India’s largest annual Hindu pilgrimages.
Police have not officially stated whether the two militants were directly involved in the killing. The Resistance Front (TRF), as per news reports, claimed responsibility for the attack. Security agencies say the group is a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The shooting prompted a wider security crackdown across south Kashmir, with additional searches and anti-militancy operations launched in the region, officials said.
The demolition of houses linked to the militants has been used by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir in recent years as part of counter-insurgency measures. Such actions, however, had become less frequent over the past year amid a decline in militant violence.
The latest attack marks one of the most significant militant incidents in the Kashmir Valley during this year’s Amarnath Yatra, which is being guarded by tens of thousands of security personnel. An investigation into the killing is underway.
