Pulwama and After
Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd), Consultant, VIF
February 27 , 2019
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At least 44 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and 70 injured when a Maruti Eeco
car laden with explosives rammed into a CRPF bus—part of a massive convoy—in Awantipora town of Pulwama District
in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on 14 February, in one of the deadliest terror attacks yet on government forces in J&K.
The incident took place at Lethpora, about 30 km from Srinagar on the Jammu-Srinagar highway around 3.15 pm. The
scene of the attack is not very far from the CRPF Commando Training Centre at Lethpora, which was stormed by Jaish
militants on December 31, 2017, killing five personnel. This was the first suicide car bomb attack in Kashmir since the
2001 strike on the J&K Legislative Assembly in which 41 people, including three suicide attackers, were killed.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM), who said it was a fidayeen attack carried out by a local youth. Police identified the terrorist as Adil Ahmad Dar
from Kakapora in Pulwama. He joined the JeM in 2018, as PTI quoted the officials as saying.
A targeted operation was launched by the Army three days after the incidence on night of 17 February on a tip-off
that three Jaish terrorists, including the handler of the Pulwama suicide bomber, were hiding in the Pinglan area. A joint
team of the Indian Army's 55 Rashtriya Rifles, the CRPF and the Special Operation Group of the J&K Police launched a
cordon in the wee hours on Monday. The search operation triggered a gun battle early on 18 February morning, which
continued intermittently till the same evening. The encounter took place about 12 km away from Lethpora where the
dastardly attack on the CRPF bus took place on 14 February.
Three militants affiliated to the extremist group were killed in a 17 hour gun battle with security forces. Two terrorists
have been identified as Pakistanis. All the three killed terrorists were affiliated with JeM and were wanted in a series of
terror crimes including attack on security establishments and civilian atrocities. One of the Pakistani terrorists identified
as Kamran had taken over as operational commander of JeM after Mufti Waqas who was killed in an encounter in
February last year. Kamran was a key aide of Jaish chief Masood Azhar. He, the mastermind of the Pulwama terror
attack and top commander of Jaish, remained active in Pulwama and Awantipora since 2017 and had a history of terror
crime records. He was responsible for the recruitment of people into the terror fold and several terror crime cases were
registered against him. "Kamran's role in the February 14 suicide bombing of a CRPF convoy was under the scanner of
investigators," a senior police official said. The second one was an IED specialist, Gazi Rashid, an Afghan national. The
third terrorist identified as Hilal Ahmad, was a resident of Pinglena Pulwama.
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