SUNJUWAN TERROR STRIKE MASTERMIND ELIMINATED

In another encounter in Valley, four local youths were killed along with 2 LeT men, igniting a row over whether they were civilians

In a major breakthrough, 20 days after the Sunjuwan terror attack, which claimed the lives of six soldiers and a civilian, security forces in Kashmir have ‘eliminated the mastermind’. He was identified as the Jaish-e-Mohammed operational commander Mufti Waqas.

It will be recalled that three AK-56-wielding terrorists wearing Army combat uniform had entered the residential quarters of the Sunjuwan Army camp on February 10. Though the attackers were later killed in an encounter that lasted more than 36 hours, the mastermind remained elusive behind the scenes.

Even as news of the Sunjuwan breakthrough tricked in, there were reports of six killings taking place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Monday.

The deceased included four local youths and two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. Three local lads – Mohammad Shahid Khan (20), Suhail Khalil Wagay (22) and Shahnawaz Ahmad Wagay (23) – along with another LeT militant Amir Ahmad Malik were found dead on Sunday night.

On Monday morning, the body of Gowhar Ahmad Lone (24), a local lad and a student of Nagpur University, was found dead along with LeT militant Ashiq Hussain Bhat, who had joined militancy last year.As per the statement released by the Army, at around 8 pm on Sunday, the mobile checkpost of security forces at Pohan in Shopian was fired at from a moving car, which led to brief exchange of gunshots.

“In retaliatory firing, one militant was killed and a weapon has been found on him,” the Army statement read, claiming that the three deceased locals were “Over Ground Workers, a euphemism for militant accomplices”.

The death toll, however, reached six when two more dead bodies were found on Monday morning, at some distance from the place of the gunfight. Although the Army claimed that the four deceased youths were ‘’OGWs”, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti took to twitter and expressed ‘’heartfelt condolences to the deceased's families” describing the shot

youths as “civilians who were caught in the crossfire”.

“Deeply distressed by more deaths of civilians caught in the crossfire in Shopian. My heartfelt condolences to the deceased’s families,” she tweeted.

The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) MLA from Shopian, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, too, condemned the killing of “civilians”, demanding a judicial probe into it.

“When your heart bleeds and you are emotionally amputated, no condemnation is enough. I have no words to condemn these killings at Shopian,” Bhat was quoted as saying.

The family, too, denied the Army’s claims terming the killings as “nothing but a cold-blooded murder”.

The overnight killings have triggered a serious crisis across Kashmir, with the entire valley observing a strike on the call of separatist leaders.