Srinagar, 27 August (H.S.): With Jammu and Kashmir Police announcing a reward of Rs 15 lakh for information leading to his arrest and plastering his photographs is South Kashmir and Srinagar, 22-year-old Mohammad Lateef Bhat has become one of the most wanted men in the Valley.

According to police records, Bhat is currently the only surviving local terrorist active in Kashmir, even as security agencies believe that 20-30 Pakistani nationals and operatives linked to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba continue to remain hidden in the Valley's dense forests.

Any person having reliable information regarding the whereabouts of the above mentioned individual is requested to immediately contact security forces, reads the message in the poster.

A resident of Khrewan Chader village in South Kashmir's Kulgam district, Bhat is believed to have joined the terrorist ranks in 2025. Security agencies say he remained largely unnoticed until July 2 this year, when he was captured on a surveillance camera in Shopian along with Zakir Ahmad Ganai, another Lashkar operative.

Soon after, security forces launched a joint operation in which Ganai was killed, while Bhat managed to escape.

Police have accused Bhat of carrying out two separate attacks in South Kashmir last month. A head constable with the Special Operations Group, Ashiq Hussain, was shot dead in a crowded market in Anantnag on July 22.

Nine days later, two non-local workers were shot dead at a brick kiln in Kulgam's Kilam village. These were the first terrorist attacks reported in the Valley since the Pahalgam attack in July last year.

After the killing of the police head constable, over 3500 suspected overground workers were detained across the.

Bhat studied at Government Higher Secondary School in Ashmuji before enrolling in Government Degree College, Kulgam, to pursue a bachelor's degree.

However, he did not complete his studies. Before going underground in early 2025, he briefly worked as a glazier.

Investigators believe Ganai played a significant role in influencing Bhat to join militancy. In November 2025, an outfit calling itself the Kashmir Revolutionary Army (KRA) publicly announced that Bhat had joined its ranks.

Police, however, maintain that the KRA is merely a proxy name used by the LeT much like The Resistance Front

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar