Noor Mohammad Tantray, the brain behind Jaish-e-Mohammad's revival in Kashmir, killed - Details inside

Pic courtesy: ANI

SRINAGAR: Top commander of terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Noor Mohammad Tantray, was killed in a gunfight with the security forces in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday.

Noor Mohammad was the key man of the terror outfit in coordinating and organising attacks at different places in J&K.

The 47-year-old hailed from Tral area of south Kashmir and his death is being seen as a blow to the terror group as he was the key man in reviving the JeM in south and central Kashmir.

The slain JeM commander was responsible was wanted in various terror incidents earlier this yea including the terrorist attack on the Border Security Force's (BSF) camp near Srinagar airport in October 2017.

Tantray, who was a little over four feet tall, was convicted in a case registered in 2003 in Delhi. He was serving a sentence at Central Jail Srinagar and was out on parole in 2015.

In July 2017, after the Aripal encounter in which three JeM terrorists were killed, Tantray went underground and soon became the key man of the terror outfit.

In November, three Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, including the nephew of terror outfit chief Masood Azhar, were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Quoting a JeM statement, local news agency GNS said Talha Rasheed, nephew of Azhar, was among the three militants killed in the gunfight with security forces in Aglar village of Pulwama district.

Three weapons, including one Kalashnikov, one M16 rifle and one pistol, besides ammunition were recovered from the encounter site.

A US-made M4 rifle used by Pakistani Army special forces was also recovered following the encounter.

The killed terrorists were identified as Mehmood Bhai, the so-called divisional commander of Jaish in the south, Tallah Rashid, Masood Azhar's nephew, and Wasim Ahmed Ganie.

While the first two were in the category of most wanted militants carrying a cash reward, the third was a local and had joined militancy in May 2017.