Post Pulwama terror attack, top JeM commanders eliminated in targeted action by India

New Delhi: Top Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commanders have been eliminated in targeted action by India post the Pulwama terror attack, sources said on Monday. 

Of the 66 terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year, 27 belong to the Pakistan-based terror outfit out of which 19 were eliminated after the February 14 Pulwama attack, sources added.

Within 45 days of the Pulwama attack, the entire JeM team involved in the attack neutralised through a combination of technical and human intelligence-based operations. This also includes arrest and deportation of Jaish cadre who were involved in the operation, sources mentioned.

After the Pulwama attack, sources said, four Jaish terrorists involved directly in the attack were killed while four others were arrested in different operations.

Sources said inputs were gathered after the interrogation of around 40 Jaish overground supporters in the Kashmir valley.

Top Indian security brass feels Pakistan trying to obfuscate its role in terrorist activities by projecting Jammu and Kashmir as part of a larger global jihadi narrative and next battleground after Afghanistan, sources added.

The terrorists killed include Kamran (on February 18), Mushashir Ahmed Khan (on March 11) and Sajjad Bhat (on March 11), sources said.

Two terrorists, including Nisar Ahmed Tantray and Sajjad, are in NIA custody for their role in the terror attack, it added.

Sources revealed that Tantray helped the suicide bomber Aadil Ahmed Dar by getting a vehicle-based improvised explosive device (IED) from Yasir, a Pakistan-based JeM terrorist.

On February 14 this year, 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a JeM-orchestrated terror attack in South Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The incident took place when a CRPF convoy, consisting of around 2,500 personnel, was attacked by a suicide bomber who rammed a car laden with explosives into one of the buses on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.