‘SUNJUWAN MASTERMIND HAD PLANS TO STRIKE OUTSIDE J&K’

The killing of Mufti Waqas, the mastermind of five recent suicide attacks in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) including the Sunjuwan strike, has dealt a severe blow to Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) as he was planning to target other parts of India, officials said on Sunday.

Barely 21 km away from the state capital of Srinagar, Waqas, who operated under the ‘code name’ of Abu Ansar, was killed in one of the most swift operations carried out by the J&K police and the Army on March 5 in Haitwara village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

A crack team was formed by the police with the specific job to trail Waqas.

It was found that he was instrumental in brainwashing and radicalising Fardeen Khanday, 16, and Manzoor Ahmed Baba, 21, to turn them into ‘fidayeen’ (suicide bombers).

The duo along with a Pakistani national stormed a CRPF camp on the intervening night of December 30 and 31, 2017, in South Kashmir’s Lethpora, killing five security personnel. All the three terrorists were killed in the retaliatory operation.

Waqas had the capability to create many more suicide bombers, officials said. A search was already on for three Kashmiri youngsters who had joined JeM last year, they said.

Swayam Prakash Pani, Inspector General, Kashmir Valley, refused to comment on the the March 5 operation which ended barely in 20 minutes.

“I can only say that after eliminating Noor Mohammed Tantray, Tallah Rashid and now Waqas, Jaish has suffered significantly,” Pani said.

Officials in the know of the developments said Waqas’s next target was to hit a strategic installation in the hinterland. His phone, which was sent for analysis, showed that he had been in touch several suspected Jaish terrorists.

“This was a make or break mission as we knew if we get him alive, it will be a goldmine of information and if he gets killed, backbone of Jaish terror group would be broken,” said an official involved in the operation.

NEWDELHI/SRINAGAR: