Pulwama terror attack anniversary: Masood Azhar, Ghazi Rasheed masterminds behind cowardly attack, details

The horrifying terrorist attack in Pulwama on February 14, 2019, has been termed India's "black day." When 40 CRPF valiant soldiers were martyred, it was one of the major attacks on Indian security forces so far. Today marks the four years of the terror attacks, which took place in 2019 with the Pulwama attack.

When the news of the deaths of 40 CRPF officers broke on our TV screens on February 14, 2014, India came to a complete standstill. A Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in one of the worst terror attacks.

Mastermind of the Pulwama attack

The ghastly Pulwama terror attack that shook the country on February 14 is believed to have been planned by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, according to top intelligence agencies in Jammu and Kashmir. He is one of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), most trusted advisors.

Despite the fact that Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, a top commander of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, have been the mastermind of the terror attack in Pulwama, Masood Azhar, the founder of JeM, made the decision and gave the attack the go-ahead.

Authorities think that Adil Ahmad Dar, the person who carried out the suicide attack in Pulwama, was trained by IED specialist Ghazi Rasheed. Around the middle of December in 2018, Ghazi Rasheed and his two companions were successful in entering Kashmir.

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Reason behind the Pulwama terror attack

Masood Azhar sent Ghazi to Kashmir to seek vengeance for the killings of his nephews Talah Rasheed and Usman in the Pulwama district of south Kashmir in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The terror attack that killed at least 40 CRPF soldiers occurred in the same Pulwama region.

Usman, the second nephew of Masood Azhar and a JeM sniper, was shot down by security forces in the Tral neighbourhood of Pulwama in 2018, prompting the Pakistan-based terrorist group to send Ghazi Rasheed, its top commander, to the Valley.

Who was Ghazi Rasheed?

Masood Azhar and Ghazi Rasheed have been close friends since the latter joined the Jaish in 2008. Ghazi Rasheed was one of Masood Azhar's most dependable Jaish commanders. The Taliban in Afghanistan trained the Ghazi, as per media reports. In 2010, after returning from Pakistan's North Waziristan, he was engaged in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as a trainer for Jaish recruits (PoK). In an altercation with security forces in the Pinglan neighbourhood of the Pulwama district in South Kashmir in 2019, Ghazi was reportedly killed. Rasheed was a specialist in IEDs and a former soldier in the Afghan war.

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Who is Masood Azhar?

In exchange for the remaining passengers from the hijacked Air India flight 814, which took place on December 24, Masood Azhar was freed from Indian custody in 1999. In addition, Masood Azhar was the brains behind the 2016 attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base. To execute the suicide bombing of a CRPF convoy by terrorist Adil Ahmed Dar, 19, he gave his group's members very specific instructions.