Jaish chief sends Afghan war veteran to avenge kin’s killing in Valley

NEW DELHI: In a bid to avenge the deaths of top Jaish terrorists Talha and Usman — said to be nephews of the outfit’s chief Maulana Masood Azhar —the Jaish-e-Mohammad leader is understood to have despatched an Afghan war veteran to oversee a “spectacular” attack in Kashmir.

Intelligence inputs, accessed by TOI, show that one Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, said to be a Jaish commander, infiltrated into Jammu & Kashmir in early December. Ghazi is believed to have reached the valley around December 9 and was in Pulwama area of south Kashmir by the month-end, mostly travelling on foot and in public transport.

The threat posed by the senior jihadi leader has been flagged as ‘serious’ during a meeting of several security agencies held on December 28.

Citing intercepts and human intelligence, agencies suggest that Ghazi is accompanied by two other hardcore Jaish terrorists.

“This module been tasked with training local terrorists and to take revenge for Azhar’s nephews, Talha and Usman. The cadres have also been asked to snatch weapons and build an armoury,” says the input.

Sources in security agencies see the move as significant as even the input describes Ghazi as a “highly trained war expert” who is also considered to be an IED specialist. Ghazi is learnt to have participated in the Afghanistan war as well.