Were involved in 4 major terror acts in past 11 months
40 kg explosive seized in Billawar, accused escape
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 23: Police along with Army, CRPF and National Investigating Agency (NIA) have cracked all four sensational terror acts committed in Kishtwar during past about 11 months including killings of prominent BJP and RSS leaders, Anil Parihar and Chanderkant Sharma, with the arrest of three top militants of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.
Kishtwar police with the help of other security agencies was now hunting other militants who were still active in the district. Operations were being conducted jointly by the security forces at various places to track down the militants.
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Meanwhile, Army today recovered 40 kilograms explosive material in Billawar tehsil of Kathua district.
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mukesh Singh told a press conference here this afternoon that three militants were arrested from different places after relentless search operations carried out by police, Army, CRPF and an NIA team, which was in Kishtwar in connection with the killing of BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar.
The three militants were involved in conspiracy and execution of the killings of Parihar brothers, RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO Rajinder Singh and two incidents of weapon snatching from PSOs of the Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar and PDP district president Sheikh Nassir.
Arrested militants have been identified as Nishad Ahmad Bhat son of Abdul Shahban Bhat, a resident of Hanjulla, Kishtwar, Azad Ahmad Bagwan son of Abdul Lateef Bagwan R/o Hanzulla, Kishtwar and Nissar Ahmad Sheikh son of Ghulam Mustafa Sheikh R/o Binasthan, Kishtwar. A case in FIR No. 67/2019 under various provisions of anti-militancy sections has been registered against them at Kishtwar police station.
“With the arrests, we have been able to solve all four cases of past 11 months in Kishtwar district committed by the militants,” Mukesh Singh said, adding that initial conspiracy to revive militants in erstwhile Doda district (comprising Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts) was hatched by the militants in 2017-18.
He said one of the longest surviving militants in Kishtwar, Jehangir Saroori was part of the conspiracy and was assisted by Nissar Ahmed Sheikh and Osama, both locals. Saroori, Osama and Nissar were joined in the conspiracy by more militants Rustam, Zahid and Haroon and subsequently some more militants became part of the group, he added.
All the three arrested militants were directly involved either in planning of executing the killings of Parihar brothers, Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO Rajinder Singh and two weapon snatching incidents, which have been worked out. Rest of the militants involved in the four terror attacks committed in Kishtwar were being pursued and will be arrested shortly, the Jammu Police chief said.
Mukesh Singh said the militants had developed hideouts in the houses of Azad Ahmad and Nissar Ahmad, which have been discovered.
He added that a Kashmiri militant Moin-ul-Islam was also involved in the killing of Chanderkant Sharma and weapon snatching from PSO of PDP leader Sheikh Nassir but was still at large.
The IGP declared that anyone harbouring, sympathizing, transporting or helping militants in any form will be dealt with strictly and booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). He said the NIA will investigate three arrested militants as they were also involved in conspiracy and killing of BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar.
In response to a question, the IGP said: “We are questioning many other suspects regarding their possible involvement in these cases. The investigation of the cases is still on and all those involved in these terrorist acts will be arrested”.
“Our attempt is to arrest the active terrorists. We have come close to the success many a times but they managed to escape. As far as Saroori is concerned, we have seen his footprints and launched many operations against him but since this area is hilly, he is able to dodge the security forces as soon as he comes to know about their movement,” Mukesh Singh said.
However, the IGP said: “We will be successful in arresting these militants very soon.”
In response to another question about involvement of any other terror group like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfits in these cases, he said the investigations so far only revealed the footprints of Hizbul Mujahideen.
“We have also not come across any Pakistan link so far…the investigation is still on,” he said.
Asked whether the rifle recovered from the hideout was one of the two weapons snatched by militants from policemen, he said the snatched weapons were not recovered so far.
In response to another question, he said the motive behind the killings was to spread terror in the region.
On unconfirmed reports that some terrorists have sneaked into Dachhan-Marwah belt from South Kashmir and established their hideout, Singh said “we have not come across any militant hideout in Dachhan-Marwah belt”.
Arrest of the militants was made by police parties under the supervision of DIG Doda-Ramban-Kishtwar range Bhim Sen Tooty, SSP Kishtwar Harmeet Singh and Additional SP Kishtwar Nassir Khan.
BJP senior leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar were martyred by the militants on November 1, 2018 near their house while senior RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO Rajinder Singh were martyred on April 9, 2019 inside the District Hospital Kishtwar. The militants had snatched weapon from PSO of the Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar in March and from PSO of PDP district president Sheikh Nassir this month.
Meanwhile, reports said, Army conducted searches in a house at village Dewal, Billawar in Kathua district this morning after developing specific information about dump of explosive material. They raided the house this morning and recovered 40 kg explosives from nearby bushes.
An Army official said they had developed specific input yesterday about the explosive material and conducted the raid today.
“It was high density explosive,” he said.
Police parties from Billawar police station led by SHO Inspector Joginder Chib also reached the spot for investigations.
A case under Section 4/5 Explosives Act has been registered at Billawar police station in FIR No. 123/19 for further investigations.
Accused managed to escape from the house and a hunt was on to nab them, sources said.
The explosive material will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination and ascertain its nature, they added.
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