Indian troops shoot dead ‘key conspirator’ in deadly Kashmir bombing that killed at least 40

Indian police said on Monday that one of the “key conspirators” behind a suicide attack that killed at least 40 troops in Kashmir had died in a shoot-out with government forces.

Mudasir Ahmed Khan, who was shot dead on Sunday, was described by authorities as a top commander with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the militant group behind the deadly bombing on February 14 in Indian-administered Kashmir.

That attack on a convoy of Indian paramilitaries in its portion of Kashmir was the deadliest in decades, and provoked a retaliatory air strike against what New Delhi called a JeM training camp on Pakistani soil.

Pakistan, which denied supporting JeM, responded by shooting down an Indian warplane and capturing the pilot, whose return two days later pulled the nuclear-armed rivals back from the brink.