Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 16: Militant Tanvir Sultan of Bemina, who was gunned down by the CRPF at Kud on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on June 13, was also linked to May 23 terror attack at Tengpora, Srinagar in which a Personal Security Officer (PSO) was killed. His mobile telephone, which was crucial to the investigations, has fallen into the hands of police and was being analyzed to ascertain his more terror links.
Police sources told the Excelsior that Tanvir Sultan appeared to have been re-cycled into the militancy, which was evident from clues emerging that before being killed in Kud in an encounter, his involvement has now surfaced in Tengpora attack on May 23 in which a police constable Mohammad Sadiq was killed.
Sadiq had been posted as PSO of Mohammad Abdullah Chatwal, chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Pasmanda Tabaqajaat Association. Sadiq was shot dead at Tengpora on Parimpora-Hyderabad by-pass in the evening of May 23.
Sources said the weapon snatched from Sadiq was the same, which was found in possession of Tanvir Sultan, which he had used in opening fire on the CRPF and police personnel and passengers travelling in the bus, killing a woman and injuring two other civilians. The militant was gunned down in retaliatory firing by CRPF and police.
Pointing out that mobile telephone number being used by Tanvir Sultan was switched off in the evening of May 22 i.e. a day before Tengpora attack, sources said it seems that Sultan was directly linked to that attack. Either, he (Tanvir Sultan) had himself carried out the attack or accompanied the militant(s), who were involved in the firing.
“This matter is now under investigation as the weapon snatched from the PSO killed in Tengpora, was the same which Sultan used in the terror attack at Kud on June 13,” sources said, adding that the AK-47 rifle was likely to be shared with Srinagar police for authentication that it was the same weapon that had been snatched from the killed PSO.
Further, they said, the mobile telephone of Tanvir remained switched off after May 22, a day before Tengpora attack, which indicated that the militants had asked him not to switch on his phone till the terror attack, which he planned to execute either on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway or in Jammu but the CRPF and police personnel intercepted him at Kathar Nullah at Kud and gunned him down after he resorted to firing on them and civilians travelling in the SRTC bus. The militant was also travelling in the same SRTC bus from Srinagar to Jammu.
According to sources, police have succeeded in seizing the telephone of Tanvir Sultan and was analyzing it to ascertain his further terror links by tracing the calls made and received by him. Some data from the telephone was being retrieved with the help of cyber experts, they said, adding that some Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of the militants could be exposed with the help of telephone data.
The investigators were also working on the theory as to whether Tanvir Sultan was involved in more terror attacks after re-cycling into the militancy other than Tengpora and Kud.
His first involvement in the militancy had surfaced in 2003 when he had carried out fidayeen attack at Ali Jan Shopping Complex in Srinagar. He had been booked under FIR No. 145/2003 in which total 22 persons were accused.
He had carried out second attack at Pamposh Hotel in which there were 14 accused including him and all of them were booked under FIR No. 127/2002.
He was later booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in 2004. From 2004 to Tengpora attack, Tanvir Sultan hadn’t figured in any militant attack.
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