‘Highly secretive, most difficult operation’
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, July 18: Police have got several leads during questioning of five persons including Secretary Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Mohammad Akbar Sofi, arrested yesterday for their alleged role in threatening social activists, political leaders, Government officers and journalists.
An official said that several names have surfaced during the questioning of the arrested persons and Police is now looking for technical evidence before laying hand on them.
Police today recovered one I-pad, one hard disk, one phone and one laptop from Nazish Yasrab Rehman and Tabish Akbar Rehman at their Sanatnagar residence in Srinagar during searches that were carried out on the basis of information provided by them during questioning. They are children of Secretary SMC, Sofi Muhammad Akbar, and are living separately with his first wife.
Another official said that the operation was highly secretive and was going on for last few months. He said that only officers who were conducting the investigations and a top official who was monitoring it had knowledge about the operation. “It was most difficult operation but we have got lot of technical evidence against those arrested”, he said.
The official said that police started tracking Rafiq Mukhdoomi who is doing Law at a private College in Srinagar. His social media posts and writings were being analysed and they were found matching with the contents of the Kashmirfight.wordpress.com.
“He was put on tracking during which the names of other arrested persons surfaced. They were also put on tracking and finally after getting technical evidence they were arrested”, he said.
Rafiq Mukhdoomi was also working with Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Alliance which was floated by Sheikh Imran, the former Deputy Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). Last year, he was arrested for his anti-India social media posts but was later released.
An official said that of late he was also close to two political functionaries of Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
The official said that Sofi Mohammad Akbar whose daughter Nazish Yasrab Rehman and son Tabish Akbar Rehman and Javed Khalid, fiancé of her daughter also arrested in Kashmirfight.wordpress.com case, was close to a politician affiliated with SMC. “He was made SMC Secretary by the former SMC Commissioner, Khursheed Sania, after allegedly being pressurized by the politician,” he said.
The official said that Sofi was very close to the politician and they were running all affairs of the SMC prior to the posting of new Commissioner Athar Amir Khan.
Top LeT comdr among 3 trapped
A top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander, Ishfaq Dar, was among 3 militants trapped in Sidiq Khan area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
A joint team of Police, Army’s 34RR and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation in Sidiq Khan area of Shopian this evening. As the security forces approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon the security forces, triggering a gunfight.
The cordon has been tightened and reinforcement rushed to the area. The other militant who is trapped Farooq Ahmad Dar and both are from Heff Shopian.
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