Srinagar: Five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists have been arrested from Anantnag district of south Kashmir in connection with the killing of a circus worker, Deepak Kumar, last month, police said on Friday.
Deepak Kumar alias Deepu of Thial-Panchayat Deot Bilaspur Udhampur, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne terrorists from a close range when he had gone to the market to buy milk on the night of May 29. Deepu, who worked at a circus in the Janglat Mandi area in the south Kashmir district, was shifted to GMC Anantnag by the labourers of the amusement park where doctors declared him brought dead. After the incident, he said, the attackers fled from the spot.
Addressing a press conference in Anantnag, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), South Kashmir Range, Rayees Mohammad Bhat said five JeM terrorists have been arrested in connection with Kumar’s killing.
“Investigations and searches were launched after the incident. During the investigations, we got some technical leads and some clues. In the meantime, we zeroed in on some suspects and they were interrogated,” Bhat said.
He said the investigations pointed at two people, Sehran Bashir Nadaf of Shirpora Deva Colony and Ubaid Nazir Laigroo of Shirpora New Colony, who had gone missing.
“We launched a massive search operation to nab them. Based on technical and human intelligence, we were ultimately able to arrest these two accused after which the whole conspiracy was revealed,” he said.
Apart from Nadaf and Laigroo, three others — Umer Amin Thoker of Waghama, Huzaif Shabir Bhat of Wachi Shopian and Nasir Farooq Shah of Wanteng Mohalla Bijbehara — have been arrested, the DIG said.
So far, one AK-47 rifle, one AK-47 magazine, 40 AK-47 rounds, two pistols, two pistol magazines, seven pistol rounds and empty cartridges, three hand-grenades, seven mobile phones and a scooty (JK03M-0442) have been recovered. Further leads are being followed, he said.
Bhat said this group of terrorists had been working in south Kashmir for some time.
“We expect more arrests and further revelations. This is a classic example of a hybrid terrorist module,” he said.
Police also said that the “accused persons were in contact with a JeM/KFF handler namely Khalid Kamran and the incident was carried out on his orders.”
With the arrests and the recoveries made from them, he said, Police solved the murder case as well as succeeded in averting major attacks which these accused had been “tasked to carry out by their handler across the border.”
