KASHMIR NEWS OBSERVER
Ashraf Wani Report IT: Junaid Matto joined the organisation in 2014.
He came into limelight after a CCTV footage got viral in which he attacked a police post in Anatnag.
He was a close associate of Majid Zargar.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist group, has appointed Junaid Matto as its new commander for south Kashmir.
After the local LeT commander Majid Zargar was killed in an encounter with security forces last week in Kulgam with two other foreign terrorists, Matto was appointed as his successor.
WHO IS JUNAID MATTO
Junaid Matto joined the organisation in 2014 with dozens of youths in Kashmir following the popularity of Hizb-ul Commander Burhan Wani on social media in the Valley.
Junaid Ahmad Matto, son of Manzoor Ahmad Matto and a resident of Khudwani in Kulgam district, left his college and joined Lashker-e-Taiba.
He came into the limelight when a CCTV footage got viral which showed him attacking a police post in Anatnag on June 4 this year and fleeing in a car. Two policemen were killed in the attack.
Security agencies believe Junaid also carried out the terror attack on a BSF bus just 12 hours before the Anantnag episode. The bus was attacked on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in which 3 BSF men got killed and 7 others were injured.
Since then he is on the radar of security agencies in Kashmir and has a bounty of Rs 5 Lakh on his head.
He was a close associate of Majid Zargar, hailing from same district of Kulgam, who was killed last week in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam.
Security agencies have also confirmed to India Today that most-wanted Lashkar Commander Abu Dujana is surviving only due to the support from these local Lashkar terrorists and is the mastermind behind most of the Fidayeen attacks by Lashkar in Jammu and Kashmir.