Srinagar, July 30 -- A team of NIA sleuths on Tuesday launched a probe into the killing of the alleged mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack and his two associates in an encounter with security forces near Srinagar, officials said here.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team arrived at the Police Control Room (PCR) here early Tuesday for the identification of the bodies of the three terrorists, they said.

In a breakthrough, the Army's elite para commandos on Monday gunned down Sulieman alias Asif, the alleged mastermind of the April 22 attack, along with two of his associates, in an encounter at Mulnar in the Harwan area near Dachigam National Park here.

The NIA team is taking witnesses in batches of two to three people "for e...