Four-feet tall Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) commander-cum-recruiter Noor Mohammad Tantray, who security agencies believe had met Taliban’s Mullah Omar in early 2000 in Afghanistan, was killed in an operation in Pulwama on Tuesday.
“The killing of Noor Mohammad Tantray alias Noora is an achievement. He was an active recruiter of local youth into militancy,” said Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Muneer Khan.
A police official said Tantray was hiding in a cluster of houses at Pulwama’s Samboora. Security forces used explosives to attack the house he was hiding in. The body of Tantray, who was a mere four feet two inches tall, was recovered along with one weapon in the morning from the rubble of the house.
“The area was cordoned off on Monday evening. In a fierce gun battle, the top JeM commander was killed. It’s a significant development,” said Mr. Khan.
Two of Tantray’s accomplices, believed to be foreign terrorists, managed to escape under the cover of darkness, officials said, adding that efforts to track them were under way.
Released on parole
The house he was hiding in was blasted by the security forces.
Tantray, a convict in the 2003 terror activities in Delhi, served a sentence at the Central Jail in Srinagar. He was released on parole in 2015 and joined the JeM immediately after the Aripal encounter in July, in which three JeM militants were killed.
“Soon he became a key man of JeM in coordinating and organising attacks at different places, including the BSF camp attack near Srinagar airport this year,” said the police. The Jaish, which was left crippled in 2014 by the security forces, saw a revival this year because of Tantray, said a police official. According to the security agencies, Tantray received over 20 fidayeen squad members of JeM this year and “would fan out them and identify targets in south Kashmir”. He was being constantly tracked by the central security agencies to crack the Pathankot attack case since he was close to many handlers in Pakistan believed to be behind the attack in 2016.
“It was in early 2000 that Tantray even met Taliban chief Mullah Omar in Afghanistan and struck a rapport with militant handlers in Pakistan,” a police official said.
Following the encounters, hundreds of mourners, including armed militants, gathered for his funeral at Tral. Armed militants also joined the mourners to pay gun salute.
IGP Khan said ‘Operation All-Out’ against militants would continue “to neutralize the militant leaders operational in Kashmir”.
“They (militant commanders) were found actively luring the local youth towards the militancy,” he said. Around 190 militants are active in the Valley,” Mr. Khan said.
