NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Monday thwarted an infiltration attempt and neutralised a hardcore terrorist along the Line of Control in Poonch.
Officials said a group of two infiltrators made an attempt to cross into the Pir Panjal valley in the Degwar Tarwan area of Poonch district.
"A contact was established by an ambush party in Poonch around 2 a.m. In the firefight, one militant was seen dropping and the second was seen moving towards Pintu Nala," the Army said.
The killed terrorist was identified as Muneer Hussain, a resident of Bagyladra in Poonch, who was a self-styled division commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
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Hussain was sent with the agenda of reviving the Hizbul Mujahideen in Rajouri and Poonch, sources said, adding that Pakistan is trying to send old terror veterans to J&K to motivate and recruit youth in a desperate attempt to revive terrorism.
Muneer is said to have visited Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for the first time in 1993. He came back in 1996 and again returned to PoK in 1998.
Sources said he was the mastermind behind a number of attacks on security forces and was a close associate of Maulana Dawood Kashmir (TuJ) who in turn is a close associate of HM head Syed Salauddin.
He had attended a high-level meeting of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Islamabad where the agenda was the revival of terrorism in Rajouri and Poonch, they added.