Pulwama conspirator, JeM commander Mudassir Ahmed Khan killed in Tral, confirms Indian Army: 18 terrorists neutralised since 14 Feb attack

Less than a month after the 14 February Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy, the Indian Army confirmed on Monday that the security forces have killed main conspirator Mudassir Ahmed Khan in an encounter. Mudassir, a local Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist, was among two militants killed in an encounter in Tral’s Pinglish area in Pulwama district, the forces said at a press conference on Monday. At a joint press conference by the army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the Srinagar-based 15 corps Lieutenant-General KJS Dhillon said that the forces have eliminated a total of 18 terrorists since the attack. “Our main emphasis was to eliminate the JeM leadership and we have been very successful in doing that. We have gone behind JeM and tried to eliminate the top hierarchy so that the Pulwama incident is not repeated,” he said. Out of the 18 terrorists, eight were Pakistanis and 10 were local terrorists — including two of Lashkar-e-Taiba and two of Hizbul, he said. [caption id=“attachment_6092361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of an army soldier near the site of attack at Pulwama on 14 February. PTI[/caption] “I would like to assure that operations against foreign terrorists and others will continue till we eliminate all (of them).” At the briefing, CRPF inspector general for operations Zulfiqar Hassan said, “Yesterday’s operation was a very significant operation. He (Mudasir) was also involved in the December 2017 Lethpora attack on a CRPF camp. It was a very clean operation, but our job is still not done. Very important players still remain. The ones who supplied him with explosives would be dealt with. Sooner or later, the rest of the players should be dealt with.” Inspector General of Police (IGP) SP Pani said that a “significant dent” has been caused to the JeM with the operation. The Tral encounter , in which Mudasir was eliminated, lasted past midnight. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Pulwama terror attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Mudasir on 27 February. Pani said at the briefing that the identity of the second militant killed in the Tral gunfight is still being ascertained. “We know that his code was Khalid. We are trying to find his actual identity,” he said. Meanwhile, PTI reported that officials believe the second militant was JeM operative Sajjad Bhat, whose vehicle was used in the Pulwama attack. With inputs from PTI