Eliminated Pulwama mastermind; Pak Army, ISI supported attack: Corps Cmdr

“Anyone who picks up arms will be killed if he doesn’t surrender”

JUNAID SIDIQ

SRINAGAR: The Indian Army on Tuesday said within 100 hours of the February 14 Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy that left 40 troopers dead, it eliminated the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leadership that planned and executed the deadly carnage.

Giving a stern warning to sympathisers of the terror movement in the state, it said "Anyone who picks up a gun in Kashmir will be eliminated, unless the person surrenders."

This was stated by General Officer Commanding (GoC) of 15 Corps, more commonly known as Chinar Corps, Lt General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon even as he made it clear that the Pulwama suicide bombing was carried out by JeM with “active support from Pakistan Army and its Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).
"Within 100 hours of the Pulwama terror attack, we hit the JeM in the Kashmir Valley which was being handled by the Pakistan-based JeM," Dhillon said, at a joint press briefing here.

“The CRPF convoy attack was carried out by JeM with active support of Pakistan Army and ISI. JeM commanders from Pakistan executed and coordinated the attack,” Dhillon said.

He was flanked by IGP Kashmir Swayam Prakash Pani, IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hassan and GoC victor force, J S Mathew.

According to IG CRPF, the Road Opening Parties (ROP) were well intact on the highway and it was a stray vehicle (bomber’s vehicle) that hit the CRPF bus.

“More than 22 forces companies were deployed on ROP duty on the highway,” he said.

About how Pak supported the Pulwama Fidayeen attack, GoC said, “Jaish is Pakistan Army’s baby and controlled by it and ISI.”

“Jaish has admitted that their commander was killed. There is a 100 percent involvement of Pakistan in Pulwama Fidayeen attack,” he said.

Lt Gen Dhillon said Pulwama type car-bombing happened after long time in the Valley. “However, similar incidents have happened in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

“Since JeM has started this modus operandi, we are keeping our all options open to deal with this modus operandi in future,” he said.

The GoC said since JeM leadership was on forces radar, the module was hit when outfit’s three militants were killed in a specific-intelligence-based anti-militancy operation on Monday.

Three militants including JeM’s operational commander Kamran, Rashid alias Gazi, both Pakistanis and a local militant Hilal were killed in 18 -hour-long gunfight at Pinglena village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Monday.

“Kamran was being handled by JeM in Pakistan in conjunction with Pak Army and ISI,” Lt Gen Dhillon said.

“Who was involved and what was role of each and every other player in the convoy attack is matter of investigation,” he said.

However how JeM militant were able to execute Fidayeen attack, Dhillon said this is matter of investigation and it is at the advance stage.

He said forces suffered casualties in Pinglana encounter as they were trying to "avoid civilian casualties".
GoC refuted reports of forces’ harassment on highways, saying there was earlier no check on the civilian traffic movement.

“What happened earlier, led to this incident (Fidayeen attack). There is no thrashing incident. There are certain restrictions put on civilian traffic when convoy is moving,” he said.

He said now the civilian traffic is not allowed during convoy movement.

The decision to restrict civilian traffic on highways was taken in a high-level security meeting in Srinagar on February 15 after the Pulwama Fidayeen attack.

Lt Gen Dhillion said forces were trying to work out modalities so that no harassment or minimum delay is caused to civilian movement on highways.

“We are working on modalities and it will be passed to administration so that public can plan their moment only according to convoy movement,” he added
.
Dhillon also warned Kashmiri militants to lay down arms or be prepared to get killed.

“Anyone who has picked up gun will be killed,” Dhillon said.

“I would like to tell the parents of local youth, especially mothers, I understand in a Kashmiri society, mother has a great role to play. Please request your sons, who have joined militancy, to surrender and get back to the mainstream,” he said.

Dhillon said that his commanders were leading anti-terrorist operations from the front.

“Brigadier Harbir Singh, who was injured in Monday’s operation, had cut short his leave to lead his soldiers from the front.

"Brigadier Singh was on leave at home. When he realised at midnight that the operation has started, he cut short his leave voluntarily and rejoined," Dhillon told.

"He (Brigadier Singh) came back to Kashmir and went straight to the operational site. He was leading his men from the front. DIG Amit Kumar (who was also injured) again was leading his men from the front and you would see from the injuries to our officers, it shows our commanders were leading the operation from the front and we were able to achieve nil civilian casualties," Lt Gen Dhillon said.

He said the Army officers will continue to lead from the front during operations in future as well.

Asked about the high number of casualties in the operation, Lt Gen Dhillon said the security forces
wanted to avoid any civilian casualties.

On whether Jaish has increased their network in the valley, IG Pani said the forces were after the militants.

"Last year, around 252 militants were killed and of them 58 belong to JeM, however this year 31 militants have been killed and of them 12 belong to JeM,” he said.

Pani said there was not a single such suicidal attack by Jaish in 2018.

“We are after them,” IGP said.

Pani said “there is a significant dip in the recruitment, statistics are the reflection.”

“We haven’t seen such a thing (recruitment) in last three months,” he said.

Pani said there are families who are playing a role to bring back their sons.

“Families and community have a big role to play. We see an element of fear in villages and force as factors responsible for the recruitment,” the Kashmir police chief said.

He said the killing of top commanders and going out of vintage elements has helped improve the security scenario in the valley.

“We are acting very tough on those who are acting as co-conspirators in such actions,” Pani said.