Pulwama mastermind, Pakistani ‘Kamran’ killed in encounter; four soldiers

Srinagar: 3 terrorists have been killed by the security forces, in an encounter lasting 18 hours, since Sunday night. Four soldiers including a Major have been killed in the encounter. Abdul Rashid Gazi alias Kamran of the Jaish-E-Mohammed, involved in the cowardly attack on the CRPF has been killed in this action. The tally of the Indian soldiers killed in the last four days has reached 45, following this encounter.

A massive search operation had been launched to find the terrorists involved in the plot, following the suicide attack on CRPF soldiers. The security forces got the information of a terrorist hideout at Pinglan in Pulwama. The place was put under siege with a swift action, by the security forces. On realisation, the terrorists started indiscriminate firing at the security forces. This encounter which began on Sunday night lasted for 18 hours. Major Vibhutishankar Dhondiyal, Hawaldar Shivram, Sepoy Hari Singh and Sepoy Ajay Kumar, of the Indian army, were martyred.

In the meantime, two terrorists also were killed. Thereafter, by Monday evening the third terrorist was killed. The slain terrorists included a Pakistani terrorist, Kamran, who is claimed to be a relative of Masood Azhar. Kamran was involved in the plot to attack the CRPF soldiers in Pulwama. Reports have also been received that he was the mastermind behind the attack. Kamran was trained by the Taliban and had carried out attacks on the NATO forces in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Then he fled from there and reached Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He started training the youth, for terrorist activities, under the supervision of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

Hilal Ahmed, a local terrorist, also has been killed in the encounter and the third terrorist could not be identified. DIG Amit Kumar of the Indian army has been injured in the encounter. Killing Kamran is considered to be a major success for the security forces as Kamran, a relative and closest associate of Jaish Chief Masood Azhar was performing important tasks for the organisation. The Indian army killed Azhar’s nephew Usman last year. As per reports, Kamran was responsible for the tasks that were being carried out by Usman.

Last year, in December, Kamran entered the Kashmir valley. All the terrorist organisations including Jaish suffered major losses due to the action by the Indian military in the southern part of Kashmir valley. Kamran had been given the responsibility to bail out Jaish and carry out dreadful bloodshed in Jammu-Kashmir. Therefore, the success of the security forces in killing Kamran, the mastermind of the Pulwama attack, within four days of the attack, becomes important.