Killed Poonch terrorists are Pakistan nationals, waging jihad against India

All of them are around 23-25 years of age and are hardened veterans of jihad and may have operated across the Durand Line in Afghanistan.

The identity cards recovered from the four terrorists gunned down by Indian Army and JKP’s Special Operations Group on Tuesday morning in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district reveal that all the four jihadis of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) group were Pakistani nationals. The four heavily armed terrorists were killed by Indian forces at village Sindarah in the Rajouri-Poonch sector near the Line of Control.

The four heavily armed terrorists were killed by Indian forces at village Sindarah in the Rajouri-Poonch sector.

According to documents recovered from the slain jihadis, their identities are Mehmood Ahmed, Abdul Hameed, Mohammed Shareef and the fourth one name is unknown except he belongs to Khurshidabad in Occupied Kashmir, right across the site of the encounter after crossing the LoC.

The four belong to a group of 12 LeT terrorists led by Sajjid Jutt, who operate between Kotli in PoK and Sialkot across the international border. All of them are around 23-25 years of age and are hardened veterans of jihad and may have operated across the Durand Line in Afghanistan as part of Lashkar’s on Pakistan’s western front. The 12 member group has been operating in the Rajouri -Poonch sector for the past 18 months as per intelligence inputs and provide safe cover to jihadists infiltrating and exfiltrating from the south of Pir Panjal as well as South Kashmir areas.

Taking advantage of the thickly forested area in the hinterland of Rajouri-Poonch sector, the LeT has wreaked mayhem and violence in this area at the behest of its political master in Islamabad and have inflicted around 24 civilian and military casualties since 2020. They are responsible for the April 20 and May 5 attack in Poonch sector with the design to derail the May 24 G-20 event on Tourism in Kashmir.

The identities of the four killed terrorists clearly indicates that the terror factory in Pakistan is alive and kicking with the sole design to target India in the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu hinterland. It is precisely for this very reason that the Narendra Modi government has ruled out any formal or informal dialogue with Pakistan till the terror factories are shut down in the Islamic Republic.