Main conspirator of the terrorist attack on the CRPF in Pulwama in 2019 killed. He was related to Pak-based terrorist Masood Azhar.
New Delhi: In the biggest strike of this year, the security forces have eliminated the top brass of the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit in a brief and clean operation in the Pulwama forests on Saturday.
Adnan alias Saifullah alias Lamboo, who headed JeM in Kashmir and was the main conspirator in the Lethpora terror attack of February 2019, was killed along with his close lieutenant Sameer Dar, in a joint operation of the security forces. Both Adnan and Sameer figured in the charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Lethpora terror attack in which more than 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives on 14 February 2019. Both also figured on the most wanted list of the security agencies because of their involvement in the Lethpora case and their capability to “strike big”.
Well placed sources said that Adnan alias Lamboo, a close relative of JeM founder and chief Masood Azhar, came on the radar of the security forces following inputs that he was ill-treating local people in and around Pulwama. With the help of local intelligence gathering, security agencies came to know that Lamboo, along with his associate, was hiding in a cluster of houses in the forest area of Nagberan Tarsar in Pulwama. Despite inclement weather, a joint operation was launched and the area was finally narrowed down to the exact location where Lamboo was holed up. However, before the security forces could act, dogs started barking, which alerted the duo. In a bid to escape, according to sources, the duo pushed out some women and children so that forces didn’t open fire to avoid civilian casualties. “Lamboo had played a similar trick in Parigam village where he was trapped once. Taking advantage of the situation, he managed to escape that time,” sources said. However, this time, the forces played a patient game. Without a scratch to civilians, they managed to neutralize Lamboo and Sameer in a brief and clean operation.
Addressing the media in Srinagar, GoC 15 Corps Lt Gen D.P. Pandey termed the killing of Lamboo as the “biggest strike of the year”. He said that after Adil Dar, the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Lethpora attack, Lamboo, an IED expert, selected, radicalized and trained the local youth for terror activities, particularly on how to prepare and plant IEDs. He said that Lamboo was in constant touch with agencies working from across the border.
Adnan alias Lamboo, according to police records, had crossed into Kashmir valley in 2017 and since then remained active in South Kashmir. He came into the limelight after the Lethpora attack in 2019 and carried out multiple attacks on security forces in the last four years, resulting in 14 FIRs against him. Of the 19 persons named in the Lethpora attack, he was the main accused. With his and Sameer Dar’s killing, 8 out of the 19 accused have been killed in different encounters, 7 have been arrested while 4 are still at large.
Adnan was also involved in the preparation and planting of an IED laden car in Pulwama last year which was traced and neutralized by the security forces in due time, thus averting a repetition of the Lethpora type attack. His name again figured in the attack on the family of an SPO, Fayaz Ahmed in Pulwama, in June. According to IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, the killing of Adnan has minimized the IED threat to a large extent.
From the possession of the slain terrorists, the security forces recovered one AK 47 and one M4 rifles along with a pistol. In fact, the recovery of the American made M4 rifle helped the forces in identifying Adnan, as he was the only one carrying this weapon in South Kashmir.
With the killing of Adnan alias Lamboo, 89 terrorists have been neutralized so far in Kashmir valley this year. These include more than 40 members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, while seven were foreigners. In fact, some of the top commanders of the Lashkar have been killed in the last few weeks which has left the outfit leaderless. According to the security forces around 300 terrorists are still active in Kashmir.