Two Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants, including a suicide squad member, whose vehicle was used to carry out the Pulwama attack on February 14, were killed in an operation by security forces in Anantnag on June 18. A soldier also died in the gunfight.
Police said militants Sajad Ahmad Bhat and Tawseef Ahmad Bhat from Bijbehara were surrounded by security forces around 4 a.m. at Marhama village in Anantnag, “following a tip-off about their presence.”
“In the exchange of fire, the militants were killed,” said the police.
Bhat, according to the police, was wanted in the case of Lethpora car blast in Pulwama , which left 40 CRPF personnel dead. “During investigation, it surfaced that the Maruti Eco vehicle used to carry out the suicide attack was owned by him,” said the police.
Sources said Bhat was also a member of the suicide squad of the JeM’s Afzal Guru group. “Bhat joined the militant ranks immediately after the Pulwama attack. Tawseef played a key role in recruiting Bhat into the JeM and was his handler,” said the police.
The two, the police said, were “involved in planning and executing a series of attacks in the area.” “Incriminating material, including arms and ammunition, had been recovered from the site of the encounter. A fresh probe will establish their complicity in other crimes,” said the police.
Army jawan, Rifleman Anil Kumar Jaswal, 35, sustained gunshot wounds in the firing and later died of his injuries.
6 civilians injured
Police said six civilians were injured, two of them seriously, in a grenade attack by militants on Pulwama’s main police station on Tuesday evening. Two soldiers, Havildar Amarjeet Kumar and Naik Ajit Kumar Sahoo, who were injured in the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at Pulwama’s Arihal village on Monday evening, died of their injuries on Tuesday, according to an Army spokesman.
Kumar, 35, was a resident of Bihar’s Siwan district and Sahoo, 27, hailed from Odisha’s Dhenknal district.
The body of Nasir Ahmed, a tractor driver, was found lying neat the encounter site at Bidoora village in Anantnag’s Achabal, where the operation was called off on Monday afternoon. The body with bullet wounds was spotted by the locals.
The Army paid tributes to the four deceased soldiers, including a Major, who died in three separate militancy-related incidents in the past 24 hours in south Kashmir.
Also read: Army officer killed in Anantnag encounter
2 militants killed in Anantnag gunfight
