Awantipora encounter: Slain terrorist identified as most wanted Jaish member

The militant who was gunned down by security forces on Wednesday in J&K's Pulwama has been identified as a Pakistani national and the most wanted Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist.

According to sources, Abu Saif Ullah alias Abu Qasim was active in Awantipora for more than a year and was a close associate of foreign Jaish militant Qari Yasir.

The forces had received specific inputs on Tuesday about the presence of JeM terrorists including one foreigner terrorist in the Zaintrag village of Awantipora area of Pulwama, after which a search and cordon operation was launched in the area. 

The operation turned into a gunfight when the hiding terrorists opened fire on the joint search parties of police, 50 Rashtriya Rifles and 185 Battalion of the CRPF. The security forces also fired in retaliation.

The firing resulted in injuries to Sepoy Rahul Ranswal of the Rashtriya Rifles and SPO Shahbaz Ahmad of local police, who were evacuated to the Army's 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar but both succumbed to injuries there.

During the process of their evacuation, the militants managed to getaway.

The search continued and the terrorists were tracked down in the forest area of village Nagander which is about one kilometre away from Ziantrag village. This triggered another exchange of firing in which Abu Saif ullah was killed and his dead body was retrieved along with arms and ammunition.

However, the other terrorist managed to escape again. A hunt is on to neutralise him.