Houses of 2 LeT terrorists demolished, over 2,000 detained after cop killed in J&K

Sending out a stern message to the perpetrators behind the targeted killing of a police head constable deployed on Amarnath yatra duty in the South Kashmir district of Anantnag, authorities on Thursday demolished the houses of two local Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, believed to be active in the area.

The action followed close on the heels of the detention of over 2000 suspected overground workers (OGWs) as part of an ongoing investigation into the Anantnag terror attack. In a related development, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also chaired a high-level security review meeting with senior officials from the Army, J&K Police, Civil Administration, central paramilitary forces, and key security agencies. Sinha directed officials to remain highly vigilant, step-up intelligence-led anti-terror operations and proactively neutralise emerging security threats.

According to official sources, hours after the top brass of the Jammu and Kashmir Police paid floral tributes before dispatching the mortal remains of Head Constable Ashiq Hussain Qureshi to his native village in the central Kashmir district of Budgam for the last rites, the houses of local terrorists Adil Ahmad Thokar and Haroon Rashid Ganaie were razed to the ground during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

The homes of Haroon Ganie and Adil Ahmad Thokar were demolished in the Hasanpora and Bijbehara areas of south Kashmir.

Similar demolitions were carried out in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack in April 2025, when the homes of at least nine suspected terrorists were blown up in different parts of the Valley. Later, a multi-storey house, belonging to Dr Umar Un Nabi, who allegedly triggered the car blast near the Red Fort Metro station on November 10, 2025, was demolished using explosives during the intervening night of November 13-14 in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reacted strongly to these demolitions. He cautioned against wanton retributive action in the wake of a terror attack in Anantnag that killed a policeman on Wednesday, saying violence cannot be brought to an end without carrying the people along.

“I understand the anger of the police, but the Supreme Court has issued an order stating that summary action of this kind should not be taken.

“We witnessed a similar situation after the Pahalgam attack (in April 2025) when some people’s houses were bulldozed. At that time, I had to speak to the Central Government to stop the trend,” Abdullah told reporters.

He also spoke out against the detention of hundreds of individuals in the Valley, stating that this “will not help improve the situation in J&K but in turn strain it further.” The chief minister stated that while the police had blown up homes of suspected terrorists after the Pahalgam attack, the investigation showed that those involved in the attack were from outside J&K.

Pointing to his previous stint as chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said that based on his experience, the cycle of violence cannot be brought to an end without taking the people along.

“We can reach a certain point using the police, Army and the CRPF, but the real end will come only when the general public stands together against such violence.

“After the Pahalgam incident, the general public expressed their anger and raised their voice against the terror attack. Even today, people are angry over how head constable Ashiq was brutally killed,” Abdullah said.

Referring to the detention of over-ground workers (OGWs) across the Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of Wednesday’s attack, the chief minister said when such reports come, people’s anger turns against the system.

“I hope we take our people along in this fight; only then will we achieve real success,” Abdullah said. Former J&K chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said that demolishing houses of “alleged” terrorists was “collective punishment” that has no place in a democracy.

“The killing of a police officer in the line of duty is a heinous and condemnable act. But detaining over a thousand people and demolishing the homes of families of two alleged militants amounts to collective punishment that has no place in a democracy,” Mehbooba said in a post on X. If the Centre maintains that militancy has been reduced to near zero, it must adopt a more humane and lawful approach towards innocent civilians instead of resorting to “tit for tat” for an entire community, the former J&K chief minister said.