Pulwama planner among 3 terrorists killed in Kashmir encounter: Army

New Delhi: A Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist who was a key-conspirator of the Pulwama attack was killed in an encounter in south Kashmir’s Tral on Monday, the Army said.

Three JeM terrorists were killed in an encounter.

“Jaish commander Mudassar Khan was among the terrorists killed in the encounter. He was the main conspirator of the Pulwama terror attack,” said Lt Gen KJS Dhillon in a press conference.

He added that in first 70 days of 2019, security forces have been successful in eliminating 44 terrorists, mainly from Jaish-e-Mohammed.

“Against 1629 ceasefire violations along Line of Control in 2018, this year 478 ceasefire violations have already taken place along LoC,” Dhillon added.

However, he refused to term this as avenging the death of February 14 terror strike."We are peace keepers and we ensure that no one raises gun against the country," the officer said.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, Swayam Prakash Pani, said the actual identity of the second militant has not been ascertained as of now. "We know that his code was Khalid. We are trying to find his actual identity," he said. The killing of Khan is a significant dent to the JeM, he said.