Jaish’s IED expert killed along with Pakistan militant in Pulwama

A commander of Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit, Yasir Parray, who was an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) expert, was killed along with a Pakistani terrorist in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday.

“#PulwamaEncounterUpdate: #Terrorist commander of proscribed #terror outfit JeM Yasir Parray, an IED Expert & foreign terrorist Furqan #neutralised. Both were involved in several terror #crime cases. A big #success (sic),” Kashmir Zone police tweeted.

The gunfight, as per police, broke out before dawn after the security forces launched a search operation in Qasbyar village of Pulwama. As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where the terrorists were hiding they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter,” a police official said.

In the retaliatory action, both the hiding militants were killed, he added.

150 militants have been killed in the Valley so far this year, of which 128 were locals and 22 Pakistanis. In 2020, the number of militants killed in the Valley stood at 195. According to official estimates over 200 militants were still active in the Valley.

“Among the active militants, 80 are believed to be from Pakistan and more than 120 are locals. Between January and July this year, 76 locals picked up arms and by now the number may have reached 100,” a senior police officer said.

“The local recruitment into militancy is still happening although not at the scale of 2017 or 2018. We have to keep a watch on developments as Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan is sure to have some impact in Kashmir, if not this year, maybe in coming years,” he warned.

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