Lashkar-e-Toiba training women cadres in J&K?

Two militants died and a woman operative later succumbed to injuries at a Doda district hospital in Saturday's encounter with security forces. Last week intelligence agencies traced woman handlers in another encounter. Intelligence agencies now fear that the Laskar is training women cadres.

Body of 22-year-old Zahida Banoo is lying in the Doda district hospital. She was killed in a fierce encounter with militants in Doda on Saturday. Lashkar commanders Nisar alias Shehbaz and Khubair were also killed in the encounter. Police sources say Zahida was an accomplice of Shehbaz. The two AK rifles recovered are the same that Zaffarullah Khan, a jawan of Territorial Army, escaped with last month after he deserted the Army to join the Lashkar.

"She was involved, no doubt. However she was not a militant but rather an overground worker.
The three who were caught were her brothers and she would  supply them everything they required," said Prabhat Singh, SP, Doda.

This is not the first time that a woman over ground worker has been killed in the past. In May 2008, another over ground worker Samreena Bano was killed in an encounter in the Doda district.

In the past many women have been arrested who were working as couriers and over ground workers of the militants. Army General chief Deepak Kapoor's recently said that there was information that women are being trained on the other side to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. Clearly, this should be a worrying trend for the security forces.