Mufti Waqas, Sunjuwan terror attack mastermind and JeM terrorist, killed in encounter in Awantipora

Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Mufti Waqas, said to be the mastermind of the Sunjuwan terror attack, was on Monday killed in an encounter, said reports.

Waqas was caught in a house and shot when he was trying to flee during a two-hour gunfight. There have been no civilian casualties or collateral damage, the army said. However, The Times of India reported that one policeman was injured.

The encounter was carried out on the basis of specific intelligence of his presence at Hatwar area of Awantipora, Hindustan Times reported. Apart from Sunjuwan, Waqas was involved in attacks in Pulwama district police lines, Lethpora and the BSF camp at Srinagar airport.

Waqas, operation commander of JeM, eliminated in Awantipora. He was mastermind behind several terrorist attacks on security forces including Sunjuwan attack. Weapons & incriminating materials like IED preparation material recovered. He is a foreign terrorist: SP Pani, IG Kashmir pic.twitter.com/obVOuXHMGE

— ANI (@ANI) March 5, 2018

According to The Times of India, Jammu and Kashmir IG SP Pani said weapons and incriminating materials like IED preparation material have been recovered. The policeman who sustained minor injuries was shifted to a hospital.

Representational image. Reuters

On 10 February, five army personnel, including two junior commissioned officers (JCOs), and the father of a soldier was killed in an attack by terrorists. The militants had struck at the sprawling Sunjuwan camp of the 36 Brigade of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI). Soon after, the army had launched a "clearing" operation, firing mortar shells at the vacated residential quarters of the Sunjuwan military camp.

Waqas's killing comes after the elimination of the terror group's operational commander Noor Mohammed Tantrey in the same area on 17 December.

According to officials, Waqas, a Pakistani national who had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 2017, was functioning as the operational commander of the terror outfit and had sent 'fidayeens' (suicide attackers) from Tral in South Kashmir to Jammu where they had carried out the strike on the army camp on 10 February.

Waqas was also responsible for radicalising locals Fardeen Khandey and Manzoor Baba who had carried out a suicide attack on a CRPF camp in South Kashmir's Lethpora on the intervening night of 30 December and 31 December last year.

With inputs from PTI