Fayaz Bukhari
-Excelsior/Aabid Nabi
SRINAGAR, Jan 16: Security forces today achieved a major success by arresting a top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander from Sopore area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Police and Army apprehended the militant commander from the house of a village headman in Sangarhama area of Sopore.
Police also arrested the Sarpanch Farooq Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Mohammad Bhat of Choru village.
The LeT commander has been identified as 24-year -old Zulfikar Ahmad Mughal alias Akhtar Hussain alias Amir Maviya son of Abdul Rasheed Mughal of Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi in Pakistan.
A police official said that Special Operation Group (SOG) Sopore and Army’s 52 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) following the specific intelligence input raided Bhat’s house at Choru last night and arrested him as well as Pakistani militant Abu Zubair alias Maviya.
Police have also recovered one AK-47 rifle, five magazines, three hand grenades and a pouch, they said. Police is questioning the militant commander.
Maviya’s arrest is a major success for the security forces and they are expected to provide useful information to police in cracking the militant network in the area.
Sources said that he has told his interrogators that he along with several others infiltrated into Kashmir from Teetwal and were in Rajwara forests and he alongwith others shifted to Lolab forests.
Maviya had arrived in Sopore on January 12 along with his associate Abu Sufiyaz. Sufiyaz was killed in an encounter with police on January 14.
Maviya told his interrogators that he alongwith his two associates Abu Jabir and Abu Sufiyan infiltrated through Teetwal on September 3 last year and were launched from an LeT training camp.
“The trio was for 10 days in Rajwar forests and was asked by their handler in Pakistan to contact one Bashir Ahmad of Drugmulla in Kupwara. The group stayed in his house for a week and later were shifted to the house of one Tariq Ahmad of Sulkoot village in Kupwara. One of the militant Abu Jabir was killed in the house of Tariq Ahmad last month in an encounter with the security forces where the other two escaped. These militants were then transported to Baramulla district and finally Sopore”, the report reveals.
An Army spokesman said there that a joint team of Army and Police apprehended a top LeT militant from Choora area of Sopore. Giving details about the arrest of the LeT commander, he said: “Based on a specific intelligence input regarding presence of a LeT terrorist in village Choora of Sopore, a joint operation was launched by Army and JKP at approximately 5 am hrs today. During the operation, the joint team successfully apprehended a top LeT terrorist, who was later identified as Abu Maviya of LeT. One AK 47, 3 magazines and around 90 rounds of ammunition were also recovered from the apprehended terrorist. An FIR has been registered and the apprehended terrorist had been handed over to the local Police Station.”
Inspector General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), K S Bhandari, told reporters on the sidelines of a function that it is cause of concern when a Sarpanch or any Government official provides shelter to a militant.
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