SRINAGAR: The Kashmir plotter of the February 14 suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans was killed by security forces in a joint operation in Pulwama’s Pinglish area which ended in the early hours of Monday, the Army said.With the killing of 23-year-old Mudassir Ahmed Khan , who worked as an electrician before taking to arms, 18 dreaded terrorists have been eliminated since last month’s suicide bombing.Acting on intel leads that JeM handler Ashiq Negru from Pulwama’s Rajpora was conceiving another terror attack in Pinglish, security forces conducted a search operation which turned into an encounter. While Mudassir and another terrorist have been eliminated, Negru is absconding.The probe by intelligence agencies also led to a discovery that the carrier of explosives used in the Pulwama attack was one Mufti Abdullah, a resident of Karachi, who was eliminated in an encounter along with a local Jaish militant in Khanmoh, on the outskirts of Srinagar , on January 26. A cache of gelatin sticks, used in a stone quarry, was recovered from the site.Addressing a joint press conference with J&K police and CRPF, the Corps Commander of Chinar Corps of the Army, KJS Dhillon, said: “We have eliminated 18 terrorists, out of them 14 alone were from Jaish-e-Mohammad. Besides, six out of 14 were main commanders. And today, JeM’s second commander Mudassir, who was the main conspirator in the national highway attack, has been killed.” Another terrorist, whose identity has not been ascertained, was also killed along with Khan. “We believe that the other terrorist was a Pakistani citizen. He used a code, ‘Khalid’. The two killings are a dent to Jaish-e-Mohammad,” said IG Kashmir Swayam Pani.CRPF was also involved in the operation that ended on Monday. Zulfikar Hasan, IG CRPF (operations) Kashmir, said, “We are peacekeepers and we ensure that no one raises a gun against the country.”TOI had on February 19 reported that Mudassir along with one Shaheed Baba were among the homegrown JeM terrorists, who were assisting a 21-member suicide squad that infiltrated from Pakistan in December last year.Though Mudassir was a resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, he had joined JeM in 2017 as an overground worker. He was recruited by Mohammad Tantrey alias Noor Trali. Mudassir had gone missing from his home in January 2018.According to the probe details on both local and foreign members of the JeM squad that were involved in the Pulwama attack, Arzoo Bashir, a young man from Tral was recruited to carry out the suicide bombing. But he chickened out and ran away from the fidayeen squad. His family brought him to police. He is currently out on bail. Finally, Adil Ahmad Dar had carried out the suicide bombing.The probe details reveal that Mufti Abdullah, a resident of Karachi, infiltrated into J&K from Hiranagar sector of the Jammu region. He was the group’s explosive’s expert. Another member of the squad was Negru. He brought around 15-17 terrorists to Kashmir. Another member was Kamran alias Ghazi, a Pakistani national killed in Pulwama encounter earlier. Hilal, a local militant, was killed along with Kamran.