Tral encounter: JeM commander Mudasir Khan among two militants killed
‘Was the mastermind behind Lethpora attack’
Srinagar: Police on Monday said that one among the two militants killed in Pinlish area of Tral during a fierce encounter has been identified by his family.
The family of JeM commander Mudasir Khan has identified his body as one of the two militants killed in Tral gunfight, police said even though it is awaiting forensic reports.
“One of the two slain militants has been identified as Mudasir Khan, alias Mohammad Bhai, JeM commander believed to have masterminded the February 14 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed,” an officer said.
The two were killed in the Sunday gunfight with forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pinglish village in Pulwama district.
In a statement, a police spokesman said that the second slain militant is believed to be a foreigner. From the incriminating material recovered from the site of encounter, it is understood that the other killed militant was a Pakistani national codenamed Khalid,” said the spokesman.
It is the JeM commander’s family which came forward and identified him, the police officer said.
The house in which the militants were hiding was completely destroyed in the operation by the forces.
The army said three militants were killed. The police has so far, though, recovered only two bodies.
Khan was the “main conspirator” of the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama, Lt General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, General Officer Commanding, XV Corps, said at a hurriedly called joint press conference by the Army, state police and the paramilitary force.
CRPF Inspector General (Operations) in Jammu and Kashmir, Zulfiqar Hasan, said,”Mudasir Ahmed Khan alias ‘Mohd Bhai’ was among the two militants killed in the encounter in Tral’s Pinglish area in Pulwama district.”
He, however, refused to term this as avenging the deaths in the February 14 terror strike.”We are peace keepers and we ensure that no one raises a gun against the country,” Hasan said.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, Swayam Prakash Pani, said the identity of the second militant has not been ascertained yet.
“We know that his code was ‘Khalid’. We are trying to find his actual identity,” he said, adding that he is believed to be a Pakistani.
The killing of Khan is a significant dent to the JeM, he said.
Pani said some material was found from their hide out and it will be shared with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Pulwama attack.
Notably, Mudasir Ahmed Khan, alias ‘Mohammad Bhai’, has been identified as the brains behind the strike in Pulwama that left 40 CRPF personnel dead on February 14, officials had claimed on Sunday.
Piecing together evidence gathered so far, security officials said that 23-year-old Khan, an electrician with a graduate degree hailing from Pulwama district, arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike.
A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Khan joined the Jaish-e-Mohammed sometime in 2017 as an over ground worker and was later drawn into the JeM fold by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias ‘Noor Trali’, who is believed to have helped in the revival of the terror outfit in Kashmir Valley.
After Tantray was killed in December 2017, Khan disappeared from his home on January 14, 2018 and has been active since then.
Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew his explosive-laden vehicle next to a bus in a CRPF convoy on February 14, had been in constant contact with Khan, they said.
After completing his graduation, Khan did a one-year diploma course as electrician from an Industrial Training Institute (ITI). The eldest son of a labourer, Khan is also believed to be involved in the terror strike at the army camp in Sunjawan in February 2018, in which six personnel and a civilian were killed.
His role has also come under lens in the Lethpora attack on a CRPF camp in January 2018 that left five CRPF personnel dead.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the February 14 terror attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Khan on February 27.
A Maruti Eeco minivan was used in the Pulwama terror attack and it was bought by another Jaish-e-Mohammed operative just 10 days before the strike.
The JeM operative, identified as Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara in south Kashmir, has since been on the run and is believed to have become an active militant now, they said.
KV Correspondent
