Srinagar: Avenging the death of over 40 CRPF jawans, the security forces have gunned down Pulwama handler Kamran during the Pinglan encounter in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. 

According to sources, Pakistani national Kamran and one more Jaish-e-Mohammed militant were cornered in a house, which was then blasted by the security forces. 

Kamran recently recruited nearly 50 to 70 young people from the Valley, all between the age group of 18 to 23. JeM fidayeen Adil Ahmed Dar, who attacked the convey in Pulwama, was one of them. Kamran personally trained Dar before he carried out the attack. 

Kamran was a close aide of JeM chief Masood Azhar and one of his most trusted JeM commanders.

Also read: How Pulwama attacker Adil Ahmad Dar became Jaish-e-Mohammed fidayeen

According to information, Kamran had joined the Pakistan-backed terror outfit in 2008 and was responsible for recruitment and training in the Valley and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir  (PoK). The 32-year-old was trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan who then returned from Pakistan’s North Waziristan in 2010.

Kamran was specially sent to Kashmir Azhar to avenge the killings of his two nephews, Talah Rasheed and Usman, in 2017 and 2018 respectively in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. He managed to infiltrate Kashmir along with his two associates around mid-December, last year.

Also read: 6 warnings PM Modi issued to Pakistan following Pulwama massacre

Kamran was an IED expert and was suspected to have operational links with the Taliban, another terror group essentially active in Afghanistan but controlled by Pakistan’s covert agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

On February 14, the JeM suicide bomber rammed an SUV car with 350 kg of explosives into a security convoy of 78 vehicles carrying over 2,500 personnel in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them were returning to duty after spending their holidays in their respective destinations.