Srinagar: Hashim Musa, the mastermind behind the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 innocent civilians was among three foreign terrorists shot dead by security forces near Srinagar on Monday morning.
Photographs of the three slain terrorists were sent to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and shown to the two harbourers arrested by the agency. They confirmed Musa’s identity.
Monday’s encounter started around 11 am in the upper reaches of the Dachigam forest near Srinagar. This was part of a large-scale joint operation by the Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police, launched after gunshots were heard in the area earlier in the day. The operation was named after Mt Mahadev that is nearby.
Intelligence agencies have confirmed that all the three slain militants were affiliated to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The agencies claimed that the encounter was the result of a month-long intelligence-based operation.
As many as 17 grenades, an M4 carbine and two AK-47 rifles were recovered from the hideout of the terrorists, apart from other warlike stores, the Army confirmed. A search operation is continuing in the forested zone.
“The process of identifying the bodies was carried out immediately . The photographs were shown to the two harbourers recently arrested by the NIA for reconfirmation of identities,” an official said.
According to him, an area domination patrol of the Indian Army spotted suspicious movement in the forest, after which the terrorists were engaged. The operation commenced thereafter. The operation is being considered significant, even if the slain terrorists were not the ones involved in the Pahalgam attack, as they were part of the group of nearly 150 infiltrated militants currently present in the region.
