Srinagar: Police on Sunday claimed to have recovered a cache of ammunition and posters of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit from a village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district and arrested three “militant associates”.
Giving details, police spokesman in a statement said that acting on specific input, Budgam Police along with 53RR and CRPF have arrested three militant associates of proscribed outfit LeT.
He identified the arrested persons as Muhammad Yousuf Dar alias Janbaz Kashmiri, Abdul Majeed Mir alias Majid, both residents of Chewdara Beerwah (both ex-militants) and Reyaz Ahmad Basmati, a resident of SafaKadal Srinagar.
They were also working for other proscribed outfit Tehreek ul Mujahideen, police spokesman said.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that these militant associates were operating in Budgam and Srinagar districts with the aim to target newly elected DDC members and to disrupt recently conducted DDC elections. They were in touch with handlers in Pakistan viz Sheikh, Usman, Tariq, Haftullah and others,” spokesman said.
“Under the garb of securing admissions in Pakistani educational institutions, they were managing contacts with Pakistan based handlers to recruit militants and revive militancy in Budgam. They were also involved in several grenade attacks in district Srinagar,” spokesman said.
“These militant associates also disclosed that their motive was to recycle the ex-militants and target DDC members, security forces and political workers. This group has also been active in issuing threat letters to political workers in recent past, the same have also been recovered from their possession,” spokesman said.
Their nefarious designs of disrupting democratic process and harming peace loving citizens on behalf of Pakistan based handlers has been thwarted due to timely action by Budgam police and SFs.
Incriminating material including two hand-grenades, 25 AK-rounds, four detonators, mobile phones “used to contact with Pakistani handlers”, threat posters have been recovered from their possession. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation, police spokesman said, adding that a case (FIR No. 11/2021) under relevant section of law has been registered in Police Station Beerwah and investigation is in progress.
Meanwhile, Army also claimed to have arrested a “militant recruiter” in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
According to a Chinar Corps Tweet, the person was arrested after a specific input.
“Based on specific @JmuKmrPolice inputs, joint Mobile Vehicle Check Post (MVCP) was established today afternoon at Aragam, Bandipora. A militant recruiter, belonging to Karalpura Bandipora & affiliated to a proscribed organisation, was apprehended alongwith 1 pistol & 7 rounds,” news agency KNS quoted the Army as saying.
Arms, ammunition recovered from shop in Sangrama: Police
Srinagar: Police on Sunday claimed to have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from a shop at Sangrama in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Quoting police sources, news agency KNO reported that the recovery was made following the arrest of an over ground worker (OGW) a few days back in Arigam village of neighbouring district of Bandipora, by the Special Operation Group (SOG) and police.
The recovery constitutes five grenades, 20 rounds and a pistol, as per an official.
A case has been registered in Police Station Arigam and further investigation has been initiated in this regard, he added.
