Ganderbal, Sep 13: Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested a militant and an over ground worker in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
A militant and a “main handler” were detained today with the help of community, a police spokesman said.
“An active terrorist alias Talha Umair alias Abu Hamza, affiliated with a proscribed terror outfit from Sehpora village in Ganderbal, who had joined the militancy earlier this year, has been detained with persistent efforts of District Police Ganderbal and his family,” the spokesman said.
While the spokesman did not identify the militant with his real name or disclose which outfit he belonged to, police sources said he was affiliated to the Zakir Musa-led Ansar-Gazwat-ul-Hind (AGUH) – an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Valley.
The “main handler” Ishfaq Ahmad Dar, son of Abdul Majeed Dar, also a resident of Sehpora, who has been instrumental in persuading him to join militant ranks, has also been detained by the police for questioning, the spokesman said.
He said few more arrests were expected in the coming days.
SSP Ganderbal Khalil Ahmad Poswal identified the arrested militant by his real name Rouf Bhat and made it sound like it was a surrender.
“We approached family of militant, Rouf Bhat, some days ago and were working on a module to know who recruited him in militant ranks. Accordingly, we detained Ishfaq Ahmad Dar as he was the one who had recruited him. He was in regular touch with Rouf. With the help of revelation made by Ishfaq and further communication, we were finally able to apprehend him.”
SSP said “initially, Rouf was not willing to cooperate with us. We involved his family and persuaded him and later he cooperated with us and we picked him up from his location.”
The SSP however added that “we are interrogating him as he was involved in Hazratbal weapon snatching act along with one Burhan of Shopian.”
