Pulwama attack mastermind Abdul Rasheed Ghazi killed in encounter: 10 things to know

Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the mastermind of the Pulwama error attack that killed 40 Indian soldiers, was killed in an encounter with security forces on Monday. He was among three terrorists who were killed in the joint operation by security forces.

Here are 10 things to know:

  1.   Abdul Rasheed Ghazi was killed in an encounter that began in the early hours of Monday in Pinglana, about 10 km away from the site of the suicide car bombing attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

  2.   Ghazi was the one who radicalised, recruited and trained Adil Ahmad Dar, the 19-year-old school-dropout who drove a car laden with explosives into the CRPF convoy on February 14.

  3.   Ghazi, a Pakistani national, is known to be a close associate of terrorist Masood Azhar, the chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad. He is a veteran of the insurgent war in Afghanistan, waged with the backing of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment. He is considered to have been an expert in improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

  4.   Ghazi had a narrow escape from security forces just days before the Pulwama attack. An Indian soldier and a Kashmiri terrorist were among those who were killed in that operation.

  5.   Ghazi was one of three terrorists killed in Monday's encounter. The operation was jointly carried out by personnel of 55 Rashtriya Rifles, two battalions of the CRPF and the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

  6.   The two terrorists had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in December and had been sent by Masood Azhar expressly to plan and execute an attack to mark the anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, reports said.

  7.   The Pulwama attack was also meant as revenge for the October 2018 killing of Masood Azhar's nephew, Usman Haider, in an encounter by security forces. Another nephew, Talha Rasheed, had been gunned down in November 2017.

  8.   Ghazi was in high-demand as a trainer in a number of terror training camps set up by the Pakistan military along the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

  9.   Security forces had been in a state of heightened alert after reports that Ghazi had infiltrated into Kashmir.

 10.   He was considered a senior member of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and a key figure in the recruitment of Kashmiri youth into the cycle of deadly violence.