Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 6: Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Muneer Ahmad Khan, today said three people have been arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Police for July 10 attack on Amarnath pilgrims in district Anantnag and announced that the militants responsible for the attack would be neutralized soon.
The IGP told a news conference here that the arrested men provided logistical help to four Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants who carried out the attack that left eight people dead.
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The IGP said that the investigation by the SIT has confirmed the statement issued by the Police on the day of attack that LeT was involved in it. “All of you know that the yatra vehicle came under attack at Batengoo on 10th of July, 2017. Unfortunately, eight of the yatris got martyred. This happened in the evening on that day. Seeing the sensitivity and importance of the case, a Special Investigation Team – all of you know – has been constituted by the police headquarters which worked under the supervision of DIG South Kashmir, Pani and of course SSP Anantnag, Altaf and two-three more officers. The idea was to get to the roots of the cause: how it happened, who did it and the biggest challenge was to crack the criminal conspiracy. That is the crux of investigation. So if you remember, when this attack took place in first statement, we said Lashkar was involved and we said the accused have been identified. Today after the investigation has been almost completed, we stick to it that stand the Lashkar was involved and the accused are identified”, he said.
Khan said that the attack was carried by LeT commander Abu Ismail and his men and OGWs provided the logistic support. “On that day, we never knew about the over ground network of this particular group and we never knew how it was planned, where it was planned and who provided the logistic support and other things. Once the investigation was started, it was revealed that Ismail, code Haroon, a Pakistan militant of Lashkar along with two other Pakistani militants and one local Kashmiri Lashkar militant carried out the attack actually. If you remember, few days back, two Lashkar militants were eliminated at Brakpora during chance encounter. And they were also suspected in this case and their involvement in this particular case is being investigated and is still under probe”, he said.
“But today I am happy to tell that after the hardwork put by the officers and the SIT, three accused persons namely Bill Reshi of Iqbal Mohalla Bijbehera, Aijaz Ahmad Wagar, medical representative of Poshkreeri area of Sirigufwara and Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh (Adhoc SRTC Driver) of Khudwani Kulgam have been arrested and they have completely revealed everything. Investigation conducted has established that these three accused in association with four terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba, that is Ismail alias Haroon, Muavia, a Pakistani, Furqan, a Pakistani and Yawar Bashir, code Ayan, son of Bashir Ahmad Wani of Hablish Devsar Kulgam carried out the attack”, he said.
“Among four terrorists, three are foreigners and one was local. Yawar had joined Lashkar-e-Toiba in the month of February 1. Before that he was a student of religious seminary Darul Uloom Bilaliya Srinagar. Now the interesting part is that he looted a weapon from a police personnel on 4-2-2017 at Hazratbal Srinagar and joined Lashkar-e-Toiba. The said conspiracy was hatched by the terrorists with active support of arrested persons by way of transporting through vehicles, providing shelter to the terrorists and carrying out the recce of the area before carrying out the attack”, he said.
The IGP said that they had initially planned the attack on yatra or CRPF for July 9. “The attack was initially planned for July 9 but that day, there was no movement of CRPF or a Yatri vehicle in isolation. In isolation, remember, they had kept a code word for CRPF vehicle and a Yatri vehicle. The code for a CRPF vehicle was Bilal and the code word for the yatri vehicle was Showkat. So till 6 pm, they kept waiting near Batengoo and as there was no movement of vehicles in isolation, so they had to retreat without any action. On 10th, they repeated the same modus operandi and the planning and unfortunately for the yatris, this bus that day, which had a breakdown near Bjbehara and was there for quite some time, when it reached Batengoo, it was attacked. And rest you know how it happened,” he said.
Khan said that three accused have been arrested and are on police remand. “Accused persons have been arrested and have been produced before the court and are in police remand. Now they are the guys, these three, who provided them logistic support, the place to stay, two vehicles, a Santro and an Alto and a Motorcycle to recce the area and to carry out the attack and escape. They also worked as their guides. And, one of them, Ajaz, he informed (the militants) that today is movement of Showkat vehicle which means yatri vehicle and that is how it was attacked”, he said.
The IGP said that all the attackers have been identified and they will be neutralized soon. “As far as the investigation part is concerned, it is complete, it is over and we know who is involved and now remains the other part to get after the armed militants and eliminate them. We are quite near to them and hopefully we are going to neutralize them in coming days. It can be today, it can be tomorrow. We are working on that. We are very near to them. You will get a very good news in coming days”, he said.
Khan said that besides eliminating the militants responsible for the attack it was important to know how it happened. “In my opinion, it was a very important case and as I said earlier besides neutralizing the armed militants, our aim was to know, investigate how it happened. Because there were so many speculations everywhere, in media, in our circles also, fingers were being raised, suspicion, but everything is clear now and these are the guys who are involved, who planned it along with the attack and who carried out the attack”, he said.
The IGP said that they had planned attack on Yatra or CRPF bus. “As I was talking about this incident, I said that they had set two targets: one CRPF vehicle and second Yatra vehicle. Unfortunately, the yatri vehicle came on that day. Showkat was the code word for yatri vehicle and Bilal was for CRPF vehicle. So it was basically a purely terrorist act. Act of terrorism. Had the CRPF bus plied, the attack on it was imminent. They had planned for it. The targets were two. Either CRPF or yatra vehicle. Unfortunately yatris became target. They also fired upon a police bunker which was there per chance”, he said.
Khan said that police have also cracked case of the attack on SHO and five cops. “Fortunately, we have been able to crack a very important case that is when my SHO Achhabal and five colleagues of mine were martyred by militants. We cracked that case. For that matter, every case of terrorism is important but there are certain cases which become sensational, or they are sensationalized whatever they are. Now our focus will be on certain cases. I will not divulge completely but there are 2-3 cases we are looking”, he said.
The IGP said that the three arrested are not OGWs but militants without arms. “Don’t call them civilians. Don’t call them OGWs. They are militants without weapons. They have not (only) supported them but are part of the conspiracy. I am using 120 B that is criminal conspiracy against them,” he said.
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