Top Hizb leader killed

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, JULY 25. In a major setback to the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant organisation, its deputy chief commander and spokesman, Abdul Hamid Tantray alias `commander Masood', was killed in an `encounter' with the special operations group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police in Pulwama district on Tuesday night.

Police claimed he was killed in an encounter with the SOG but the Hizb says he was arrested and later `killed in custody'. A police bulletin said here this evening the encounter took place at village Pohu. A pistol, six rounds of ammunition, and incriminating documents were recovered from the militant. The Hizb chief commander, Mr. Adbul Majid Dar, said Masood was arrested on Tuesday morning from Pampore and ``killed in the evening in custody''.

A moderate

Masood shot into prominence when the Hizb announced a unilateral ceasefire in August 2000. He was one of the four Hizb commanders who held the first round of talks with the Union Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pandey. A moderate militant leader, he was an active member of the Jamat-e-Islami. He quit his Government job to join militancy in 1990. One of the oldest guerillas in Kashmir, he founded the Al Badr (local) outfit in the early 1990s and later merged it with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

Police, meanwhile, have arrested Asiya Andrabi, chief of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a radical group of women. She was on way to Doda.

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