Top Jaish explosives expert among 3 killed in Pulwama
SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Indian security forces killed a top Jaish-emohammed (JEM) explosives expert in Kashmir, suspected of planning a May 28 car bombing that was foiled by the vehicle’s interception, and two local terrorists in a major counter-insurgency operation on Wednesday, officials said.
Abdul Rehman alias Fauji Bhai , a native of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, was an Afghan war veteran who had been active in South Kashmir since 2017, the officials said.
“This operation was based on human intelligence inputs and all three militants killed in the operation were affiliated with Jaish,” Jammu & Kashmir Police inspector general Vijay Kumar said, adding that the bodies of the three militants would be buried in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Clashes erupted near the encounter site and the police made announcements asking people to stay inside their homes and not venture out.
A joint team of the army’s Rashtriya Rifles, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu & Kashmir Police killed
Rehman, who also went by the name Waleed Ismail and was the Jem’s operational commander in the area, and the two other terrorists in a shoot-out in Pulwama district’s Kangan village where they had been holed up, the officials said.
Vijay Kumar said Rehman planned the May 28 car bombing that failed when security forces intercepted a Santro car in Pulwama packed with explosives the previous night. The two terrorists killed along with him were identified as Jem’s district commander in Pulwama , Manzoor Kaar alias Abu Mansh, a resident of Sirnoo, and Javid Zargar of Rangmullah, another JEM commander.
Inputs available with security forces, however, indicate that Rehman had built two more vehicle improvised explosive devices in Kashmir. “Our information was that Fauji Bhai... had fabricated three vehicle IEDS. We seized one of the three on May 27 but there are two more out there, possibly somewhere in Budgam and Kulgam areas,” a top counter-terrorism official told HT, requesting anonymity.
There have been several intelligence reports over the past two months about plans by Jaish terrorists to carry out major strikes targeting security forces.
The Santro car packed with explosives seized by security forces on May 27 was the vehicle for the first of these planned attacks. It was intercepted when it was being taken to a Jaish terrorist, Sameer Ahmed Dar of Kakpora, Pulwama, by an associate.
Sameer Dar is a relative of Adil Dar, the suicide bomber who drove his Maruti Echo vehicle into a CRPF convoy on February 14, 2019, killing 40 troopers.
AN AFGHAN WAR VETERAN, FAUJI BHAI HAD BEEN ACTIVE IN SOUTH KASHMIR SINCE 2017, OFFICIALS SAID