Ismail was closely associated with Jaish chief Azhar
A joint team of security forces on Saturday eliminated one of the masterminds of the ghastly Pulwama terror attack Mohd Ismail Alvi, alias Saifullah alias Lamboo alias Adnan, without suffering any collateral damage in a clean operation at Nagberan-Tarsar forest area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Ismail, who had managed to dodge the security forces on a number of occasions in the past, ran out of his luck on Saturday morning when a joint team of security forces zeroed in on the cluster of dhoks in the higher reaches of Dachigam.
As per police records, Ismail was A++ categorised terrorist and figured among the list of most wanted terrorists operating in the valley.
According to police records, there were 19 accused terrorists /OGWs involved in the Lethpora terror attack case. Out of 19, seven terrorists were killed in encounters, seven terrorists/OGWs arrested and five still absconding.
Ismail, a Pakistani national and an Afghan war veteran, was a highly trained terrorist, especially in making IED. Ismail was closely associated with Jaish chief terrorist Masood Azhar and had infiltrated into the Indian territory in 2017 through the Shakargarh sector.
Sharing details of the firefight, the GoC Victor Force, Major General Rashim Bali told reporters in Srinagar, “We were getting a lot of intelligence from the Jammu & Kashmir Police as well as from the locals about the movement and the way Ismail was ill treating the locals in the general area of Tral bowl.”
Major General Bali said, “For the last 15 days there were about three reports of his sexual misconduct with women of that area generally in the upper reaches of Dachigam forest.”
Finally through the human source of the JKP we were very clear as to where we can localise him. So on the basis of all this background intelligence we were able to home in on this cluster of dhoks in the upper area of Dachigam and this happened on July 27. Since then the weather was extremely bad, we took a very very circuitous route so that we could surprise the terrorist and today morning we closed on to the area where we were suspecting him to be there.”
GOC Victor Force said, “As the forces were tightening the cordon the dogs started barking in the area which alerted the terrorists. Before the fire fight started, the terrorists desperately pushed four children and a group of women out of their hideout in a bid to break the cordon. While doing so they lobbed grenades and opened fire using automatic weapons. In the ensuing gunfight the security forces neutralised both the terrorists without causing any injury to the civilians or suffering any collateral damage.”
Security forces recovered arms and ammunition including 01 AK rifle, 01 M-4 Carbine, a Glock pistol and a Chinese Pistol from the site of encounter.
GoC 15 Corps, Lt Gen DP Pandey said elimination of Ismail brings closure to Pulwama incident which happened in February 2019. He was one of the masterminds for having trained a local boy, Adil who eventually blew himself up in an IED attack. Ever since he had been responsible to continue to train people in the making of IED and deployment of IEDs against the security forces.
Lt-Gen DP Pandey said Ismail was recruiting young locals by brain washing them, carrying out selective identification of local boys and radicalising them and giving them weapons and putting them as the face of the overall strategy of our inimical agencies which are operating from across.
He had also visited several training camps of JeM in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has earlier escaped from many encounters/cordon and search operations including at Doniwari Chadoora Budgam on March 4, 2020, Parigam Jagir Pulwama on November 19, 2020 and Kalenvan, Bijbehara Anantnag on July 7, 2021.
In a tweet Kashmir zone police said, “Ismail comes from the family of JeM Chief Maulana Masood Azhar. He was involved in conspiracy and planning of the Lethpora Pulwama attack and figured in a chargesheet produced by NIA.”
The police said Ismail was also involved in the killing of SPO Fayaz Ahmed, his wife and daughter in Tral, recently. Besides other terror crimes, he was also instrumental in motivating and recruiting the youth to join terror folds and also motivating local youth for stone pelting and other criminal activities, it said.
Moreover, the killed terrorist was carrying out terrorist activities in PD Awantipora, district Pulwama and district Anantnag. He was a close associate of terrorist Abdul Rehman alias Fauji alias Idrees Bhai a resident of Multan Pakistan who along with two local associates were killed in an encounter at Kangan Pulwama on June 3, 2020. He was trying to re-establish and strengthen the JeM terror outfit and utilise Awantipora especially Kakpora and Pampore area of Pulwama as a hot bed for receiving new terrorist groups and transporting them to the other parts for carrying out terrorist attacks.