Two terrorists, including an IED expert of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, were killed in an encounter in Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday, police said.

According to officials familiar with the matter, the encounter broke out during a search operation in Qasbayar village of Pulwama on Wednesday. Police have identified the terrorists as Jaish IED expert Yasir Parray and Pakistan national Ali Bhai.

Confirming the killings, director-general of police Dilbag Singh termed the encounter a big success. “Both of them were involved in the terror activities. Yasir Parray was involved in an IED attack on the army in which two soldiers were killed and many others injured. He (Parray) was considered as an IED expert.”

Ali Bhai, too, was involved in a lot of terror activities in the area. “Both of them were working jointly and they had more than one dozen FIRs registered against them.”

Inspector-General of Police (Kashmir), Vijay Kumar, too, described both the terrorists as experts in handling IEDs.

Army spokesman said that two AK 47s, two pistols and other warlike stores were recovered from the encounter site.

Speaking about the growing threat of the The Resistance Force (TRF) -- an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- DGP Singh said: “All the groups active in Kashmir like Jaish and Lashkar and its affiliates are carrying out attacks but TRF is claiming responsibility as if locals are doing this, which isn’t true.”

“Furqan alias Ali Bhai was a category “A+” Pakistani terrorist who was known to be active with JeM since June 26 2020. Yassir Ahmad Parrey, of Qasbayar, Pulwama, was a category “B” militant who had joined JeM on June 20 2019. He was known to be associated with various Pakistani terrorists and acted as a guide for bringing them into Kashmir. He was a known associate of Pakistani terrorist Abu Saifullah alias Lambu, who had planned the Pulwama convoy attack on CRPF. He had orchestrated attacks on the Security forces using an improvised explosive device at Arihal on 17 Jun 2019,” the army spokesman said.

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