JeM IED expert among dead in Pulwama fight
A senior commander of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), along with two associates, was reportedly killed during a gunfight in southern Pulwama district on Wednesday. An Army jawan was injured in the clash, a report said.
The J&K police and Army officials said that slain JeM commander Abdur Rehman Alvi alias Fouji Bhai alias Fouji Baba was an Afghan “war veteran” and known as an expert in fabricating improvised explosives devices. He was reportedly involved in the February 14, 2019, terror attack at Lethpora, Pulwama.
As security forces have pushed offensive actions more vigorously against separatist militants in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior commander of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) was along with two associates killed during a gunfight in southern Pulwama district on Wednesday. An Army jawan was injured in the clash, a report said.
The J&K police and Army officials said that slain JeM commander Abdur Rehman Alvi alias Fouji Bhai alias Fouji Baba was an Afghan “war veteran” as he is reported to have fought alongside the Taliban before turning to Kashmir a few years ago.
He was also known as an expert in fabricating improvised explosives devices and reportedly was involved in the February 14, 2019 terror attack at Lethpora, Pulwama in which more than forty CRPF personnel were killed.
The officials said that fighting broke out in Pulwama’s Kangan area early Wednesday after the J&K’s police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) together with the Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)’s 182 and 183 Battalions launched a cordon-andsearch operation to flush out militants dead or alive.
Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, “The joint operation was launched in the early hours today on specific intelligence input. Soon contact was established with terrorists hiding in the village.” He added that announcements were made through public address system asking the holed up militants to surrender “but they responded by opening fire on the security forces, triggering the fire fight.”
A J&K police
spokesman said that Alvi was active in Kashmir Valley since 2017. “The investigations reveal he was an IED expert and the mastermind of recent failed car bomb attack in Pulwama,” he said.
The security forces combating a three-decade-old insurgency in J&K had on May 28 claimed that they foiled a militant plan for an act of terror in Pulwama similar to the one carried out in the same district on February 14 last year by timely detection of a Santro car laden with 40-45 kilograms of explosives that was being driven through the district. The IED planted in the car was subsequently detonated by the bomb disposal squad.
A report from Pulwama said that Wednesday’s fighting in Kangan’s Astan Mohalla left several residential houses damaged. Soon after the guns began roaring, the authorities snapped internet service in entire district “as a precautionary measure.”
The police claimed that Alvi was a close confidante of JeM chief Moulana Masood Azhar and a photograph circulated through social media some time back is testimony of that.