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[Daily Excelsior] The Saturday’s deadly strike by Jaish-e-Mohammad...literally
Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf
bannedthe group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
(JeM) in South Kashmire comes as a surprise for the security forces who had wiped out the outfit from the area two years ago by killing its two top commanders in Tral, Pulwama.
The attack on District Police Lines (DPL) Pulwama is first strike by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in South Kashmire that led to killing of eight security force personnel.
The attack comes at time when security forces achieved major successes against forces of Evil this year especially in South Kashmire. This year security forces killed 136 forces of Evil so far after they launched major offensive against them especially in the last two months.
Sources said that security agencies had inputs about a possible strike in South Kashmire. They said that the group was intending to target the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police Pulwama but heightened security prevented the strike there.
They said that the fidayeen forced their entry into the DPL Pulwama by cutting the wire and jumping over the fence. They said that the proposed visit of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah prevented the further casualties. "As Omar was to visit Shopian, the police men who normally get ready for deployments by 5 am were ready on Saturday one hour ahead of the schedule, at the same time when the fidaydeen struck", they said.
Sources said that after entering the DPL, the fidayeen rushed towards the SOG camp inside the complex but alert guards fired at them forcing them to enter the residential block where they were neutralized after day long shootout.
Sources said that the group recently infiltrated into Kashmire from Poonch side and comprised 5 members including 3 fidayeen of Afzal Guru Squad. The squad had earlier carried attacks in North Kashmire near the LoC in Tanghdar and this is first strike of the JeM in South Kashmire.
JeM was trying to set up base in South Kashmire and its two senior commanders, Adil Pathan and Burme stayed in South Kashmire for two years but failed to get any foothold before they were killed in Tral on October 8, 2015.
Security forces had launched hunt against the two members of the JeM who were part of the fidayeen squad and are looking for the locals who have provided them logistics to carry out the attack.
In the meantime, police today indentified the three fidayeen as Dawood, Abu Bakar and Abu Saad, all Pak nationals. Three AK-47 rifles, six magazines and one UBGL was recovered from the encounter site.
In the meantime, at Pattan in North Kashmire, large number of people joined the CRPF in the last rites of a CRPF man, Mohammad Yaseen Teli, killed in fidayeen attack at Pulwama. The cop had received Gallantry award on last Independence Day for his extraordinary role in counter-insurgency operation at Nowhatta on August 15, 2016.