Jaish-e-Mohammed’s bomb-maker killed in Jammu and Kashmir

A joint operation was launched by the army, the police and the CRPF in a village in Pulwama. Three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama this morning. One security forces personnel was injured in an encounter. One of the terrorists has been identified as “Fauji Bhai”, an improvised explosive device (IED) expert.

The elimination of “Fauji Bhai” and the two other terroirsts comes almost a month after Riyaz Naikoo, one of Kashmir’s most wanted terrorists and commander of terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir.

“It is the second biggest success for the army, CRPF and police after Riyaz Naikoo who was neutralised. The other two terrorists have not been identified yet,” Vijay Kumar, Inspector General Police of Kashmir Range, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The senior police officer also said that “Fauji Bhai” made the IED which was recovered from car in Pulwama on last week.

Today’s joint operation was launched by the army, the police and the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) in a village in Pulwama.

“The killing of Fauji Bhai alias Fauji Baba, a Pakistani national, is a big success for security forces as he was a master in assembling improvised explosive devices for JeM,” Mr Kumar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

On Monday, official sources say three heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists were killed as the army foiled a major infiltration attempt along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district. But no body was recovered.

Last week, security forces prevented a massive car bomb attack in Pulwama after they stopped a vehicle carrying 40-45 kg of improvised explosive device (IED). The plan had chilling similarities with last year’s terror attack in Pulwama, when over 40 soldiers were killed as a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into a CRPF convoy.

Based on intelligence inputs, a white Hyundai Santro car with a fake registration number was signalled to stop at a check point on Wednesday night, but it tried to accelerate and go through the barricade, the police said.

The spurt in terror attacks amid reports of infiltration by highly-trained terrorists from Pakistan poses a major security challenge even as the country fights the coronavirus crisis.