Top Jaish militant 'Lamboo', a relative of Masood Azhar, killed in J&K encounter

Srinagar, July 31: Abu Saifullah aka 'Lamboo', a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist and a resident of Pakistan's Punjab province, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

"Saifullah was from a family of Masood Azhar. He was involved in conspiracy and planning of Lethpora attack. He stayed with Adil Dar till the day of fidayeen attack, viral video of Adil Dar had his voice in it," said IGP Kashmir.

"The importance of killing Saifulla alias Lambu is two-fold. It brings closure to Feb 2019 Pulwama incident. He was one of the masterminds for having trained a local, Adil, who blew himself up in an IED attack," said Lt Gen DP Pandey, Chinar Corps Commander on today's Pulwama encounter.

"Ever since he had been responsible to train people in making IEDs and deploying IEDs against security forces. He has also been responsible to recruit young locals by brainwashing them, carrying out selective identification and radicalising them and giving them weapons," Pandey added.

"Seven out of the 19 accused terrorists of the Pulwama attack have been killed, seven others have been arrested, five are still absconding," he added.

Saifulla alias Lambu (killed today) was involved in many incidents. He had infiltrated into Kashmir valley in Jan 2017 and was active in South Kashmir. 14 FIRs against him. He was the main accused of Pulwama attack of Feb 2019," said IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar.

Reportedly, Saifullah was the operational commander of Jaish in South Kashmir. He was an expert in encrypted messaging applications, expert in IED-making and was mostly operating from Awantipora.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the forest area of Namibian and Marsar and the general area of Dachigam this morning, following inputs about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said.

The search operation turned into an encounter after militants opened fire at a search party of the forces, who retaliated.
In the exchange of firing, two terrorists were killed, the official said.

He said the identity and group affiliation of the ultras were being ascertained.

India had carried out a strike on a JeM terrorist training camp in Pakistan''s Balakot area on February 26 last year, in response to the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet in the Pulwama case detailing how Pakistan-based JeM terror outfit planned and carried out the attack. The probe by the NIA revealed that the RDX used in the attack was procured from Pakistan.