A house where the terrorists were hiding burns during Monday's encounter in Pulwama (AP)

PULWAMA: In the first major encounter after the February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy, security forces in Kashmir eliminated three Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorists, including IED expert Abdul Rashid Gazi , the suspected mastermind of the strike, in a prolonged gun battle in Pulwama district on Monday. However, they also lost five of their own men, including a 34-year-old Army Major.

Police officials said the Jaish terrorists were part of the suicide squad behind the horrific Pulwama bloodbath that has triggered nationwide outrage. Eleven security personnel, including a brigade commander, a lieutenant colonel and a deputy inspector general of police, were injured in the gunfight.

A J&K Police statement confirmed that Jaish commander Kamran alias Fahad, Rashid Gazi alias Lukman, both Pakistani, and a local terrorist, identified as Hilal Ahmed, were killed in the encounter. Security forces said JeM chief Masood Azhar's nephew Mohammad Umair could be hiding in south Kashmir.

The 20-hour-long gunbattle between the security forces and the terrorists erupted in Pinglan, a neighbourhood adjoining Kakpora, the home town of Jaish terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar who had rammed his vehicle into the CRPF convoy in Lethpora, Pulwama district.

TOI had reported on Sunday that while Azhar has been confined to an army hospital for an unknown ailment in Rawalpindi in Pakistan, he sent Umair to recruit three local fidayeen in Kashmir.

The operation allowed the forces to avenge the Pulwama bombing to some extent. But the mood was sombre due to the deaths of Major D S Dondial, Sepoys Ajay Kumar, Hari Singh and Havildar Sheo Ram and J&K Police head constable Abdul Rashid.

In the gunfight, a civilian, Mushtaq Ahmed, was also killed while his home, along with three neighboring houses, was gutted. The terrorists took shelter in one house and moved between the others.

The fierce gun-battle, which seemed to have ended by 4pm, resumed after a long pause, as thuds and booms of guns and IEDs rang out, injuring DIG south Kashmir Amit Kumar, Brigade Commander Harbir Singh and Lt Col Rahul Gupta. They were fired at by the third terrorist who was hiding in a cow shed.

Tension gripped the village as dense smoke rose from the encounter site and several rounds of fire reverberated in the nearby neighbourhoods. Several youths from adjoining areas rushed to the spot and began pelting security forces with stones, hidden under their pherans, to rescue the terrorists and disrupt the operation. Police had a tough time managing the violent mob of hundreds of locals.

Indian Army pressed three Mi-17 helicopters into service while the operation was on. Two drones were also hovering over the encounter site, from where flames and fumes leapt up.



In Video: Pulwama gunfight ends; three terrorists killed