File photo of the Pulwama bombing. (Reuters photo)

SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI: The Jaish-e-Muhammed overground worker who provided the vehicle for the February 14 Pulwama bombing , was killed along with another terrorist in a gunfight with forces on Tuesday in south Kashmir's Anantnag. An Army jawan was wounded. Also, two soldiers who were injured in the IED blast on Monday in Pulwama succumbed to their injuries on Tuesday.

The two killed in Anantnag's Bijbehara on Tuesday were identified as Sajad Maqbool Bhat, one of the members of the Pulwama suicide squad , and his recruiter Tauseef Bhat, categorised as a 'serious threat'.

Sajad, a resident of Bhagpora Marhama Bijbehara in Anantnag, had bought on February 4 the Maruti Eeco van that was used for the deadly ambush that killed 44 CRPF personnel. Documents accessed exclusively by TOI reveal Sajad fled his home eight days after the attack, just when the sleuths had discovered his role as the 'logistics man' in the bombing.

As an overground worker, Sajad had been conducting reconnaissance of the area and providing information to Jaish on the movement of security forces. He had been missing since February 22, according to a police report.

The van that suicide attacker Aadil Ahmad Dar rammed into the CRPF bus at Lethpora had been sold to Mohammed Jaleel Ahmed Haqani, a resident of Heaven Colony in Anantnag, in 2011, and subsequently changed hands seven times before it reached Sajad. It is, however, not clear how Sajad managed to raise funds to buy the vehicle since he was only a student.

Sajad studied at madrassa Taleem ul Islam Marhama for three years after his 7th standard. He was enrolled at Government Higher Secondary School Marhama for 11th standard, when he fled home to join as an armed terrorist with Jaish. His picture, where he was seen holding weapons, appeared on social media soon after he absconded while the police had launched a manhunt for nabbing members of the Pulwama module.

The other terrorist, 23-year-old Tauseef Bhat, killed in the gunfight at Bijbehara, was a BA third-year student of distance learning and had joined Jaish during Ramzan on June 12 last year. Like Sajad, Tauseef was also from Bijbehara and used to run a 'darasgah', a religious outfit, in evening hours. Documents reveal police categorised him as a "great threat" for Anantnag town, National Highway and adjacent areas. "It is now clear Tauseef had recruited Sajad for Jaish. From here on, Tauseef will be part of the NIA probe," an official in Srinagar said.

Meanwhile, two of the nine Army soldiers who were injured in Monday's blast in Pulwama succumbed to their injuries on Tuesday.

In another attack on Tuesday, a grenade lobbed near a police station in Pulwama by suspected terrorists injured eight civilians, three of them critically.

