Srinagar: Eight of the 19 terrorists involved in the 2019 Pulwama suicide attack have been killed, Jammu and Kashmir additional director general of police (ADGP) Vijay Kumar said on Tuesday, as the day marked four years of the terror strike that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
Of the remaining 11 terrorists, while seven have been arrested, four, including one local terrorist, are still alive and are in Pakistan, Kumar added.
The police officer made the statement on the sidelines of a function held to pay tributes to the CRPF jawans. “Of the 19 people, eight have already been killed, seven have been arrested. Four among whom three are Pakistanis – Azhar Masood, Farooq Masood and Alvi – and one from Pulwama and is living in Pakistan are still alive,” he said.
The terror attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama district was carried out on February 14, 2019, when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a CRPF convoy on Srinagar-Jammu national highway. Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir, alias Ammar Alvi and brother of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, was the mastermind of the attack, according to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that took over the probe.
Inspector of CRPF operations, MS Bhatia, said several changes have taken place in the security grid since the Pulwama attack to ensure such an incident is not repeated.
“There has been a lot of improvement in the security grid and the offensive against terrorists is continuing, terrorist modules are being busted and terrorists are being neutralised. The ecosystem of terrorists has been busted,” he told reporters.
Several lessons have been learnt and the Road Opening Parties (RoP’s) have been made strong, Bhatia said. “There is CCTV surveillance, besides traffic regulations…,” he said.
“We are sure we won’t allow a repeat of the attack,” he added.
Kumar said all commanders of Jaish in Pulwama have been neutralised.
“In Pulwama, there is no terrorist commander of Jaish present. Now, seven to eight local terrorists and five to six foreign terrorists of Jaish are active in South Kashmir. Among them is Musa Sulaimani who is active in Kulgam district and the forces are after him. We will catch him soon,” he said.
He added that Jaish has been trying to recruit more local terrorists.
“Recently, we busted a module in Kulgam and arrested six people. Yesterday, a Jaish terrorist was arrested. We won’t allow the Jaish to gain strength here again,” he said.
The officer said terrorists have been focusing on the use of grenades, sticky bombs and pistols off late to carry out attacks.
“Our focus is on small modules and narco terrorists and terror funding. And this month. the SoG (special operations group), Srinagar Police, recovered ₹41 lakh. Then again in Baramulla, ₹26 lakh was recovered. Our main focus is on terror funding,” he said.
He also said that weapons are being delivered to the Union territory through the Line of Control and international border. “But most of the weapons come through drones and that’s the reason why we have made our network strong,” he said.
Kumar also said that 37 local terrorists are active in Kashmir. “Among them, only two are old ones, others have been active for the past two, three or six months,” he said.