Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Oct 16: Security forces today busted a militant module with the arrest of three militants from Kulgam area of Kashmir and Inspector General of Police Muneer Khan said that the number of militants in Kashmir has decreased with continued successful operations.
Khan said that three militants – two from the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and one from the Hizbul Mujahideen -were arrested over the past three days from South Kashmir.
“On October 14, two terrorists with the intention to snatch weapons of personal security guards of a protected person fired few rounds at Kund in Qazigund area.But they had to beat a retreat due to hue and cry raised by locals,” Khan told a press conference here.
He said on receipt of this information, a joint party of the police, Army and the CRPF established a check point and nabbed the two militants, who were riding on a motor cycle.
“They were identified as Khursheed Ahmad Dar and Haziq Rather.One pistol, some ammunition and a live grenade were recovered from their possession. They belong to LeT,” he added.
Khan said an Over Ground Worker of militants-Rameez Yatoo, who works in a medical agency in Kulgam, was arrested. “Arms and ammunition were recovered from his home.He had helped the militants in carrying out the attack on the police vehicle at Damhal Hanjipura on Saturday in which one cop had lost his life,” the IGP said adding the attack was carried out by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen.
He added that the number of militants in Kashmir has come down due to continued successful operations. “As far as the number is concerned, again the number of militants has certainly decreased after continuous successful operations. The militants who are in field we will face them and what is the strategy for them we will formulate that but our main concern is recruitment. We want that there should be no further recruitment. And I have been telling you this thing that previously also and I reiterated today that we target the leadership of militants and one of the reasons for that is these leaders are more involved in recruitments for their cadres and that is our concern”, he said.
Khan said the offer of surrender to local militants still holds good and there has been excellent response to their offer. “There has been excellent and tremendous response to our appeal which we made last time. As far as coming and surrendering before us is concerned, it is not important and necessary and mandatory that we disclose every surrender. We have to keep certain things up our sleeves and disclose the things at appropriate time because we have to see and care for security of surrender (militant) as well”, he said.
“And again, we (Police, Army and CRPF) reiterate our commitment in front of you and request you to take forward this message and appeal that those local militants who want to surrender would be provided full support and we will do everything whatever we can for their rehabilitation if they want to come into mainstream. Even in the encounters, if they come up with their arms up, if they want to surrender we will take the surrenders because they are our own people. We continue with this policy”, the officer said.
The IGP said that Hizbul Mujahideen is behind the recent bank robberies in South Kashmir. “There were back-to-back robberies in Marhama Bijbehara and another in Shopian. What is surprising is that Hizbul Mujahideen denied its hand in them, saying ‘we are good people and we don’t loot public money’. But the fact that their terrorists who were involved in the robberies were caught on CCTV and identified and we will give you their names. Both these robberies were carried out by Hizbul Mujahideen and identified through CCTVs. Their claim that they don’t indulge in such activities, is negated”, he said.
“On October 14, there was another incident in which our bunker and vehicle were ambushed by militants at Damhal, Hanjipora and our one driver Khursheed Ahmad was martyred. After investigation was launched, we have come to know that this action was also carried out by Hizbul Mujahideen militants and one of their OGW namely Rameez Yatoo who works in a medical agency and is a resident of Mohanpora was arrested. Arms and ammunition were recovered from his house and he is the same person who had brought these militants for the action at DH Pora. There has been good progress in the investigation. Hopefully, we will be able to crack that case in total”, Khan said.
“There is no doubt that small groups of Jaish with two-to-three militants or three-to-four militants, are operating and active in North Kashmir, South Kashmir and fringes of Central Kashmir. You might be remembering that when Jaish operational chief, who was eliminated in Ladoora, we had information that he was seen with 4-5 cadres a day before his killing. So he was eliminated and 3-4 cadres were still there in North Kashmir, in Rafiabad area and we are looking for them. Similarly this information about Zakir Musa (chief of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind) going and receiving a bunch of terrorists (at Budgam), the news is being verified. We are verifying authenticity of that information”, IGP said.
Khan said that security forces are looking for a group of JeM militants who are operating around Srinagar. “Certainly there is a group of Jaish, two to four militants, were were operating in the fringes of Srinagar district and yes it could be handiwork of them, we are looking for them. We are looking for the group which operates in fringes of Srinagar and we were fortunate to have Ismail and other guy near Srinagar”, he said.
The IGP said that photographer Kamran Yousuf was arrested by Police on charges of stone pelting but later he was handed over to NIA after money transactions into his account surfaced. “You must be remembering that he was arrested by police on the allegations of his involvement in stone-pelting and organizing stone-pelting. He was handed over to NIA when the angle of money transactions from different districts and different States and from other countries came to the surface and to investigate that he was taken by NIA and they are doing it. This is not that we failed. If you remember, Kamran Yousuf was arrested by J&K Police in the first instance initially”, he said.
IG CRPF Zulfikar Hassan appealed to local militants to shun the path of violence and join mainstream. “I would like to request Kashmiri militants to come into mainstream and abandon the path which you are treading and we will go a hundred steps to rehabilitate you, to take care of your future and ensure your safety. That is my request to all Kashmiri militants as you know that good (anti-militancy) operations of forces are underway, so don’t come under pressure of other militants and surrender”, he added.
Commander 2 Sector of Rashtriya Rifles of Army, Sachin Malik said that security forces’ operations are very quick nowadays as the three militants were arrested in an hour’s operation. ” I would only reiterate that the speed which we carried out these operations jointly by CRPF, Army and police, you will see that within an hour, we were able to catch these terrorists involved in this operation. We are working together with great speed and effectives and these results came out since last two-three days”, he added.
“Second thing is that the door for local militants to surrender is open. It involves a lot of restraint on our part during operations but we are willing to undertake that and if any local militant wants to surrender, the door is open”, Malik said.
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