Pakistan re-activates terror launch pads, relocates Masood Azhar brother to PoK: Indian Intelligence

"Terror launch pads in PoK, which were dismantled and pushed back to interior, have now been reactivated," sources told IBNS.

According to Indian sources, Jaish-e-Mohammad chief  Masood Azhar's brother Ibrahim Azhar had been relocated to PoK to oversee the affairs.

According to media reports in Pakistan after the arrest of 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed ahead of Imran Khan's visit to USA, Islamabad had indicated that they would not arrest or detain Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar "without any valid evidence" for his alleged involvement in the Pulwama attack.

Indian sources said  the Indian troops have been sent there (border) for this reason, amid heavy exchange of cross-border firing between Indian and Pakistani soldiers  along the Line of Control in  Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday claiming the lives of two Pakistani soldiers. One Indian trooper was killed in another sector during the latest ceasefire violations by Pakistan. Pakistan even resorted to artillery firing in Tangdhar sector forcing a befitting response by Indian troopers.

"After Imran Khan's visit to the US they got emboldened and at it again- designing something big in Kashmir," Indian sources said.

"The US will be busy with Afghanistan and so Pakistan is planning to destabilize the region," the sources said.

India-Pakistan relations reached a new low earlier this year after the Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-harboured terrorists on Feb 14 killing 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the strike on their convoy in Kashmir.

India hit back by launching surgical strikes in the terror camps in Balakot inside Pakistan territory with Indian warplanes crossing the de facto border in  Kashmir and dropping bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, encounters with terrorists continued in Kashmir. Security forces on Tuesday gunned down the  self-styled 'commander' of Jaish-e-Mohammed during an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, officials said.  Police said the JEM commander was identified as Fayaz Panzoo. Panzoo and one of his associates were killed in the incident.

Police said Fayaz was involved in last month’s Anantnag attack in which five CRPF jawans lost their lives and SHO Arshad Khan was seriously injured and later succumbed to injuries. 

 
Last Saturday a top Jaish commander of South Kashmir, who has been identified as Munna Lahori, was killed along with another terrorist during an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian area.

Munna Lahori, the Pakistan-based terrorist group's leader in south Kashmir area, and another terrorist were killed during the encounter.

"Two JeM terrorists killed in a gun battle with SFs at Bonbazar, Shopian. They have been identified as Munna Bhai or Chhota Burmi from Pakistan and Zeenat-ul-Islam from Shopian, J&K," an official told IBNS.