Killing of Zahid Wani will leave Jaish-e-Mohammad-demoralised

New Delhi, Jan 31: On Sunday, the Jammu and Kashmir police gunned down five terrorists including top Jaish-e-Mohammad-e-Mohammad commander, Zahid Wani.

The killing of Wani is significant as he was one of the top wanted terrorists and was leading the outfit in the Valley. He took over as the commander of the JeM following the arrest of Sameer Dar in Srinagar in 2016. Officials tell OneIndia that Wani was key to the JeM as he provided both logistic support and planned attacks.

The security forces have met with plenty of success in the past two years and have managed to gun down scores of terrorists including top commanders. Wan's presence in the outfit ensured that the outfit was able to recruit and plan major attacks.

The official cited above said that his killing is bound to demoralise the cadres of the JeM. This would mean that the recruitments too would go down drastically. His killing comes in the backdrop of the security forces killing 21 terrorists in January alone. There have been 11 encounters already this month.

Five terrorists were shot down in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir. The encounters took place in Pulwama and Budgam. "5 terrorists of Pakistan sponsored proscribed terror outfits LeT and JeM killed in dual encounters in last 12 hours. JeM commander terrorist Zahid Wani and a Pakistani terrorist among the killed. Big success for us," a tweet by the J@K police read.

In the Budgam encounter one terrorist was killed and an AK-47 rifle was recovered. In the past month 22 terrorists have been gunned down in nearly one dozen encounters.