SRINAGAR – Indian police said Monday that one of the “key conspirators”behind a suicide attack that killed at least 40 troops in Kashmir had diedin a shootout with government forces.
Mudasir Ahmed Khan, who was shot dead Sunday, was described by authoritiesas a top commander with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the militant group behindthe deadly February 14 bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir.
That attack on a convoy of Indian paramilitaries in its portion of Kashmirwas the deadliest in decades, and provoked a retaliatory airstrike againstwhat New Delhi called a JeM training camp on Pakistani soil.
Pakistan, which denied supporting JeM, responded by shooting down an Indianwarplane and capturing the pilot, whose return two days later pulled thenuclear-armed rivals back from the brink.
Police in Kashmir said Monday that an investigation had “revealed thatMudasir was one of the key conspirators” of the deadly attack on Indianforces.
Mudasir was shot in Tral — a town in Pulwama district where the suicidebombers struck — along with another gunman Indian police said was fromPakistan.
K.J.S. Dhillon, the local army commander in Kashmir, said Monday that 14alleged JeM militants, including six commanders, had been eliminated in acrackdown in the aftermath of the bombing.
Police said the mastermind of the convoy attack was killed on February 18along with two other JeM associates in a shootout in Kashmir.
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The disputed region is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, and thefoes have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory.
Resistance to Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region has spiked inrecent years, with public demonstrations turning violent and soldierspelted with stones in clashes that have seen civilians killed.
Kashmir has been ruled directly by New Delhi since June last year whenPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party pulled out of an alliancegoverning the restive territory.
Local parties had been advocating for a fresh state ballot, but theelection commissioner said at the weekend no such poll was scheduled in thenear future.
Rebel groups seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistanhave been waging an insurgency against half a million Indian troopsstationed there for 30 years.
Tens of thousands have died in the fighting, mostly civilians. – APP/AFP