Pahalgam attack: Houses of 2 local terrorists destroyed by security forces, over a dozen ops underway

Srinagar: The houses of two local Kashmiri terrorists of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba—Adil Hussain Thoker of Bijbehara and Aasif Sheikh of Tral—involved in Tuesday’s Pahalgam attack, were destroyed in operations carried out by security forces and local administration. Sources in the security establishment told ThePrint that over a dozen operations are currently underway in Kashmir to tighten the security grid, and hunt down the group of seven terrorists— including at least four Pakistani terrorists and three local terrorists —believed to be involved in the killings in Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam. As previously reported by ThePrint, while four terrorists were involved in the actual shooting including the two local terrorists, three others were in the higher ranges as lookouts.

According to sources, an explosive device was found at Sheikh’s house, following which it was decided to blow it up for safety. The residents in the neighbourhood were evacuated before the blast, they said. ThePrint was the first to identify and name the two local terrorists Wednesday.



A postgraduate who worked as a teacher, Thoker was regularly spotted attending funerals of suspected militants killed in encounters with security forces. In 2018, Thoker is believed to have travelled to Pakistan via the Wagah-Attari border crossing. The Jammu and Kashmir Police have announced a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh in exchange for “any information leading to the neutralisation of the terrorists involved in this cowardly attack”.

The police have also identified two Pakistani terrorists involved in the attack as Ali Bhai alias Talha Bhai and Hashim Musa alias Suleman—both of whom were suspected to have infiltrated into India from the Doda sector of Jammu over a year ago. All bullets recovered from the killing spot were steel-tipped, or known as armour piercing ones—a clear sign of Pakistani involvement, sources said. Sources in the administration underlined that there will be zero tolerance to terrorism and that those picking up guns against the State will face severe repercussions.

Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi reached Srinagar Friday for a full security review of the situation and the ongoing operation by the security forces to track down the seven LeT terrorists. T wo Sectors (Brigade level formation) of the Rashtriya Rifles have been put on the job to track down the group of terrorists besides those from the Special Forces. On Friday, Pakistan Army fired small arms at some places along the Line of Control (LoC), prompting an effective retaliation from Indian Army.

No casualties have been reported so far. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Army chief in Kashmir, ops intensified with search on for 7 LeT terrorists var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.

addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.

length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).

getTime() );.