The police termed as “big success” the killing of Jaish-e-Muhammad militant Usman Ibrahim—the nephew of the outfit’s founder Moulana Masood Azhar—in a gun-battle in southern Tral area Tuesday. Usman is the second nephew of Azhar killed in Kashmir in a span of less than a year.
A police official, who wished not to be named, said the killing of Usman is a “big success for us” and a “major jolt” to Jaish.
“We have recovered a US-made NATO-grade M-4 carbine from the encounter site in Tral where Usman, along with a local militant, was killed on Tuesday night,” the official said.
He said this is the second M-4 recovered by the police. “The first one was recovered from Tala Rashid, Azhar’s first nephew who killed in Pulwama gunfight in November last year,” he said.
Top police officials claim that as Masood Azhar continues to send his close relatives to Kashmir, “it reflects Jaish is falling short of men and now relies on second-rung family relations to keeping the outfit alive in Kashmir.”
“It was after Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba suffered big jolts in 2017 ‘operation all-out’ that Jaish carried out suicide attacks to give a breathing period to local cadres in Kashmir,” a senior police officer, who happens to be part of anti-militancy operations, told Greater Kashmir.
220 militants were killed last year during the “operation all-out”, the official said, adding that these included top commanders of Jaish including Tala Rashid, Mufti Waqas, Noor Muhammad Trali, Adnan Bhai and others.
“Jaish suffered heavily since 2017,” said another police officer.
Days after Rashid’s killing, Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Zakiur Rehman’s nephew Owaid alias Osama was killed along with top militants of the outfit in a gunfight in Hajin area of northern Bandipora district.
A police source said that Usman Ibrahim is believed to have headed the militant group involved in recent “stand-off” attacks on forces in Kashmir that saw the killing of two soldiers and a Central Industrial Security Force officer.
The source said these attacks were “possibly” carried out using the gun recovered from the Tral gunfight site.
“He (Usman) is believed to have crossed over to this side in November last year after the death of his cousin (Rashid) to take charge of the outfit and woo local youth,” the source said.
‘M4 IS A DIFFERENT GUN’
An army official said that M4 is “completely different from sniper gun.”
“But an M4 fitted with a night vision device can be used by militants to target forces from a distance,” the official said. “In November last year, when first such weapon was recovered, we had said there could be few more such weapons in Kashmir.”
‘M4 RECOVERED SECOND TIME’
Inspector general of Central Reserve Police Force (operations) Zulfikar Hassan confirmed that M4 gun was recovered second time in Kashmir.
“It’s for forensic experts to find out whether the same gun was used during recent sniping attacks. M4 or anything else, we are ready to face whatever weapons the militants would carry,” he said.
“They (Pakistan) keep sending people just to create trouble in Kashmir. We are ready to deal with the challenge,” he said.
‘WOOING LOCAL YOUTH’
In November last year, former general officer commanding (GoC) of army’s Srinagar-based 15 corps, lieutenant general JS Sandhu, while replying to why militant leadership in Pakistan was sending close relatives to Kashmir, had stated: “Militant leaders are facing questions by their own people in their homeland. So they are under pressure to send their close relations to Kashmir. Plus, blood relations of top militant leaders are being sent here as a motivational force to woo as many local youth as possible.”