IN A major breakthrough, the Army’seliteparacommandoson Monday shot dead the alleged mastermindof thePahalgam terror attack along with two of his associates in an encounter in a forest areaonSrinagar’soutskirts in Kashmir, officials said here. The officials said Sulieman alias Asif, who is believed to be the mastermind of the April 22 attack, was killed after the security forces launched a surprise operation following a technical signal indicating the use of a satellitephonethatwasalsoused by perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack.

 

Theother terrorists killed in the Army action, codenamed ‘OperationMahadev’,havebeen identified as Jibran -- who was allegedly involved in the SonamargTunnelattacklastyear -- and Hamza Afghani. Asmany as26persons --mostly tourists -- were shot dead by terrorists at Baisaran meadows inPahalgam,whichpromptedthe Armed Forces to launch Op SindooronMay 7againstthe terror infrastructure in Pakistan. The terroristswerekilledin an exchange of fire during the cordon and searchin Mulnar village. One M4 carbine rifle, two AK rifles and other munitions were recovered from the site. Ataround1130hours,onepartycomprisingpersonnel from 24 Rashtriya Rifles and 4 Para unit had detected the group of three terrorists and neutralised them by springing a surprise on them, an official said.