Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar. Nov 11: One of the most wanted militants in the country and accused in last year’s blast outside Delhi High Court, Shakir Ahmad alias Chotta Haafiz, has been cited in Srinagar by security agencies.
Highly placed sources said that one of the top most wanted militants in the list of the National Investigating Agency (NIA), Shakir, has been cited somewhere in Amira Kadal area of Srinagar 3 days ago by an Army source.
Sources said that an Army source cited Shakir in Srinagar and immediately informed the Army unit in Bhaderwah who alerted Army in Srinagar. Army in is now working on the information passed onto them about the presence Shakir here.
The source has told Army that Shakir who was sporting a long beard and hair has done away with it, and has shaven his beard and trimmed long hair just to avoid getting traced by the security agencies, who are after him since his name figured in Delhi High Court blasts in which 14 persons were killed and 85 other injured.
Shakir is most wanted in the NIA list after Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, Ilyas Kashmiri, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Sayed and Lakhvi are in Pakistan while as Kashmiri was believed to be killed in a US drone attack but it was not confirmed.
Shakir is the only surviving militant among the six wanted local militants by NIA in last year’s Delhi High Court blast who is still at large. Wasim Akram Malik, who was studying Medicines in Bangladesh, Abid Hussain and Aamir Abbas Dev have already been arrested by Kishtwar Police and NIA while Aamir Ali was killed on August 6 this year by security forces in Bhaderwah during an operation and Junaid Akram Malik who was planning to surrender before the security forces was reportedly eliminated by Hizbul Mujahideen.
NIA has put a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on Junaid’s head while state government too has put an equal amount on his head for the information that would lead to his killing or arrest. NIA wants Junaid alive so as to strengthen their case against the other accused and get the exact details about two other Pakistani nationals who executed the blast.
According to information gathered by the NIA during the questioning of the three arrested militants accused in Delhi High Court blast, three militants Shakir alias Chhota Haafiz, Aamir Abbas Dev and Abid Hussain, all residents of Kishtwar had shifted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), packed in a briefcase from Kishtwar to Kud.
At Kud they had handed the IED to two Pakistani militants, code named as Abu Saifullah and Abu Bilal. The two Pakistanis had transported the IED to New Delhi in a TATA Sumo and planted it outside the Delhi High Court.
After carrying out the blast both the Pakistanis had reached their forest hideouts in a week’s time. After the involvement of the two Pakistanis surfaced in the blast, security forces launched massive operation against them. Later the agencies believed that the duo had fled to South Kashmir.
But security agencies could not get any clue of the two Pakistanis in South Kashmir after the information was passed on to them about their presence in the area. The NIA wanted to capture Amir Ali who had provided logistics and hideouts to two Pakistani militants after the blast but he was killed in army operation in August and now their only hope to get Shakir alive.
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