Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Jan 21: Police today said that divisional commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is the brain behind killing of Station House Officer of Chadoora and arrested three militants who were responsible for his killings.
Superintendent of Police Budgam, Irshad Ahmad, said that conspiracy to kill SHO Chadoora, Shabir Ahmad, was hatched by Divisional Commander of the LeT Qasim, Basharat Ahmad Mir alias Ustad Umar, Lateef Ahmad Rather, Reyaz Ahmad Dar and Umar resident of Pakistan and an unidentified person in third week of November last year.
SHO Shabir Ahmad and shopkeeper Ghulam Mohammad were killed when militants fired at Shabir in Chadoora market and two cops were injured on December 2 last year.
The SP said that three militants – Ashiq Hussain Bhat son of Ghulam Rasool, Reyaz Ahmad Dar son of Ghulam Rasool resident of Panzan and Basharat Ahmad Mir son of Late Abdul Khaliq resident of Munpapay – were arrested while the fourth one Umar alias Zahid was killed in an encounter in village Hushroo area of Chadoora in district Budgam last year on November 25 with police and 53 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) of Army.
The police officer said that during the investigation of the killing of the SHO, it surfaced that a group of LeT militants operating in the area was involved in his killing.
The SP said that during the questioning of the arrested militants, it surfaced that four more persons – Mohammad Yousuf Lone son of Sona-Ullah Lone resident of Gadoora, Pulwama, Abdul Hamid Malik son of Ali Mohammad Malik resident of Raipora, Chadoora, Manzoor Ahmad Najar son of Ghulam Qadir resident of Panzan, Lateef Rather alias Abu Muslim son of Habib-Ullah resident of Badipora, Chadoora – were part of the conspiracy.
Irshad said that acting upon the conspiracy, recee was carried out twice by the militants and finally attack was carried out by Umar of Pakistan, Basharat, Reyaz and Aashiq.
The SP Budgam said that investigations reveal that the arrested militants are also involved in a variety of conventional criminal acts ranging from extortion to murder cases to NDPS cases.
“Besides, Basharat Ahmad, Ashiq, Yousuf and Hamid have also been found involved in duping innocent persons to provide them Government jobs and have duped them of huge money from general public. They also used militants to silence the people who were demanding money back”, the police officer said.
In the meantime, the Srinagar based defence spokesman, Lt Col N N Joshi said here that based on specific intelligence joint operations were launched in Qazigund and Tral areas of South Kashmir by Army and Police, resulting into elimination of two militants, one of them of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and a local from Hizbul Mujahideen. “Two AK 47 rifles, one pistol and ammunition was recovered. The bodies and weapons were recovered late night on January 20 and 21”, he added.
The spokesman said that the first joint operation was launched by Rashtriya Rifles troops deployed at Qazigund, CARGO and Jammu and Kashmir Police at 0300 hours on January 2o. “A terrorist was hiding in a house at Shimpura village of Qazigund, taking the family members of the house owner as hostage. Keeping in mind the danger to the life of hostages, the area was cordoned till such time the safe passage could be ensured for the hostages. Thereafter, the terrorist was challenged and given a chance to surrender. However, the terrorist turned down the call for surrender and tried to escape, firing at the security forces. This led to a heavy exchange of fire and killing of the terrorist. Due to Internal Security problem in the area and constricted space, the recovery of the body and weapons was delayed till late at night. The body of the slain terrorist, one AK 47 rifle, one pistol and ammunition were recovered. On recovery of the body, the slain terrorist was identified as Javid Ahmed Salafi from HM a resident of Bulbul Naugam Village of Anantnag district”, he added.
The spokesman said that the second operation was launched at last evening on the receipt of specific intelligence about presence of militant at Village Dadsara, Tral of Pulwama district by the Rashtriya Rifles troops and Police. “The troops moving towards the target house, where the terrorist was hiding, were subjected to heavy indiscriminate fire. The Army troops retaliated instantly, effectively and with due care to the civil population. With great precision, the Army soldiers brought down the terrorist. The operation was called off in the morning of January 21, 2014. The body of the slain terrorist was recovered along with one AK 47. The slain terrorist was identified as Raza Muzaffar, a foreign terrorist from Muzaffarabad (PoK), belonging to the JeM”, he added.
Lt Col Joshi said that these operations were surgically conducted without any collateral damage or casualty to own forces. He said: “Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh, Chinar Corps Commander commended the participating troops and officers of Army, CARGO and JK Police for these operations, giving an opportunity to the local terrorist to surrender and ensuring that there was no collateral damage.”
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