Pulwama attack conspirator among 2 terrorists killed in encounter

Two terrorists have been neutralised in an encounter in the Dachigam forest area of Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. The exact location of the encounter is between Namibian and Tarsar, police said. One AK and an M4 rifle were recovered from the encounter site.

One of the slain terrorists has been identified as Lamboo, a Pakistani affiliated with the banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). His real name was Mohammad Ismail Alvi. He was killed in a gunfight when a joint team of forces cordoned off Nagberan Tarsar village in the forest area falling under the Dachigam of south Kashmir’s Pulwama after inputs about their presence.

The authority is still trying to ascertain the identity of Lamboo’s accomplice.

Police said Alvi was an expert in manufacturing Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and was involved in many militant attacks. Officials said police and army were after the militant commander for over two years now.

The encounter started after a joint team of the police and army cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about the presence of terrorists.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where the terrorists were hiding, they came under heavy fire that triggered the encounter.

The militants opened indiscriminate fire and tried to break the security cordon. The joint team of forces retaliated, leading to an encounter in which the two were killed. Police said the identity of the second militant is being ascertained.

“Mohd Ismail Alvi was from the family of Masood Azhar. He was involved in conspiracy and planning of the Lethpora Pulwama attack and figured in the charge-sheet produced by the NIA,” police quoted Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar in a tweet.

Elsewhere in the state, a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) was recovered along the highway in District Rajouri of the Jammu region. It was successfully defused, and the area was cordoned off for a more intensive search.

On February 14, 2019, forty paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed when a fidayee — Adil Ahmad Dar — rammed his explosive-laden car into a CRPF convoy at Lethpora on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. The attack, first of this scale, brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.