Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Nov 4: After five hours persuasion, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant surrendered before the security forces in Tujjar area of Sopore in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district last night.
Sources said that security forces waited for five hours in a cordoned Tujjar village and eventually managed to arrest the holed up militant. He was identified as Umar Mir, a local resident, who had joined militancy in May this year.
They said that the security forces received a tip-off about the presence of a militant in Tujjar and the entire cluster of houses was immediately cordoned off. The cordon was effectively in place at 5 pm.
Sources said that after the cordon was in place, a senior officer got the cell phone of the holed up militant and talked to him. He was asked to surrender on the condition that there will not be any gun battle.
They said in the the second stage, the security forces sent the head of the family in whose house Mir was trapped. “Still unsure of the security forces, Mir finally sought his father who was sent in. It was Abdul Khaliq, also a local resident, who assured his son that security forces will not kill him if he surrenders,” sources said. He finally surrendered at around 10 pm.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, Uttam Chand, said that police along with Army and Centra Reserve Police Force (CRPF) arrested a LeT militant in Tujar sharief, Sopore last evening.
The DIG said that on a specific information regarding the presence of LeT militants in the general area of Shirpora Tujarsharief, Sopore Police and the contingent of 22-RR and CRPF launched cordon and search operation in the area last evening. He said that during search operation all the civilians were evacuated from the adjacent houses .
Chand said that the presence of a local militant was established in one of the houses in the area. “The militant was asked to lay down his arms and ammunition and come out from the house”, he added.
DIG said that initially the house owner was sent to persuade the holed up militant and later on he was made to speak to senior police officers present on spot and ultimately the militant was identified as Umar Khaliq Mir alias Sameer son of Abdul Khaliq Mir resident of Tujarsharief, Sopore.
“The holed up militant requested that his father be brought to the cordon site and he will speak to his father and will surrender. His father along with other respectables of the area went to the house to persuade the holed up militant to surrender, who ultimately laid down his arms and ammunition and came out from the house and was apprehended”, the DIG said.
He further said that one AK-47, three magazines of AK-47, 90 rounds of ammunition, a wireless set, one GPS set, one pouch, two grenades and a matrix sheet were recovered from the house and added that a case FIR number 142/2016 U/S 7/25 Arms. Act was registered in Police Station Bomai in this regard.
Chand said that the militant had joined the LeT in May this year and crossed over to PoK. He got training there and had recently infiltrated along with a group of foreign militants.
He added that investigation in this regard has been taken up to trace out the rest of his associates.
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