Anantnag: An Afghan war participant, who was also an expert Improvised Explosive Device (IED) maker, was among three militants killed in a gunfight with government forces in Kangan area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said on Wednesday.
Terming the killing of the IED expert as a huge success, he identified the slain as Abdul Rehman, alias Fauji Bhai of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM).
He said Rehman was the mastermind behind the “car bomb” attempt, recently foiled by government forces in Rajpora area of Pulwama district.
The car laden with explosives was intercepted and later defused by the government forces last week.
“Identities of the other two militants were being ascertained,” Kumar said.
Sources in the police, however, said that the other slain were local militants and identified them as Javed Zargar of Rangmulla Pulwama and Manzoor Kar of Sirnoo village in the south Kashmir district.
“The bodies, as has become the norm now, will be sent to an undisclosed location for burial,” the sources told Kashmir Reader.
The gunfight today took place in Astan Mohalla locality of Kangan area.
A senior police official from the district said that a Cordon and Search Operation was launched in the area following specific inputs regarding presence of militants.
“The operation was launched in the wee hours and by early morning contact had been established with the holed up militants,” the official said, adding that the militants turned down the offer to surrender made repeatedly by the forces.
He said that all the three militants shifted from the house they were holed up in and moved to a nearby cowshed, in a bid to escape, “They were killed in the ensuing gunfight,” he added.
“Their bodies along with arms and ammunition and some incriminating material have been retrieved from the site of the gunfight,” the official said.
The authorities snapped mobile internet services across Pulwama district soon after the gunfight started. This was the second gunfight in Pulwama district in last 24 hours. On Tuesday two militants of the same outfit (JeM) were killed in Saimoh village of Tral.
The IGP hailed forces for killing 75 militants most of them commanders this year.
Asked whether Rehman was the last IED expert of JeM, Kumar said that there were two more of them identified as Waleed Bhai and Lambu Bhai.
“Besides, we have managed to get the identity of the JeM chief through our network of sources which is a feat as well for the outfit does not reveal the identity of its chief otherwise,” Kumar said.
The IGP maintained that the JeM chief, Abdullah Rashid Gazi, was operating in upper reaches of Khrew area in Pulwama district. “He will be nabbed or killed any time soon now,” he added.

Suhail A Shah