SOG team questions ultras
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Srihargobindpur, April 6
A team of the special operations group (SOG) and the joint interrogation centre (JIC), Jammu and Kashmir, today visited Batala and Srihargobindpur to interrogate four arrested ISI-trained Kashmiri terrorists.

The team was led by Inspector Shahin Parveen, the only woman officer of the elite SOG fighting against terrorists in trouble-torn Rajouri.

She is reportedly responsible for the killing of more than 12 hardcore terrorists in the Kashmir valley.

The arrest of the four terrorists has come as a relief to Inspector Parveen as residents of Rajouri had launched an intensive campaign against her for the “disappearance” of Mehmood-ul-Haq, a student of M.Phil (Urdu) in Jammu University.

Relatives and friends of Mehmood-ul-Haq had alleged that he was killed after being kidnapped. The JIC officials who visited Batala and Srihargobindpur were Sub-Inspector Sham Lal, and Head Constable Surinder Kumar.

During preliminary interrogation, all four militants made sensational disclosures. Sajjad Hussain of Bhaderwala, Mohammad Din of Samba and Mohammad Yusuf of Anantnag district admitted that they were assigned by the ISI to carry out subversive activities in the border state. Though they were arrested perchance by the Batala police, which had put up a naka on April 1 near the Harchowal bridge, yet the senior vice-president of the Shiv Sena, Batala, Mr Ramesh Nayyar, has alleged that all four were rounded up much before their formal arrest.

He claims that he was in the Srihargobindpur lock-up on March 19 when he met the four there. Showing telephone numbers of Jammu and Rajouri written on the wrapper of a matchbox, Mr Nayyar says the militants had asked him to send a message to their near and dear ones that they were in “illegal custody” for the past about three months.

Mr Nayyar says he was surprised to see photographs and news reports of the militants claiming that they had been arrested on April 1.

However, Mr J.S. Handa, SP, Batala, and the DSP refuted the allegations.

Top police officers of Batala claim that the arrested militants have confessed to their links with the ISI and Pakistan-based Sikh militant outfits. They have also named senior leaders of various political parties, especially the Congress, who would help them in their militant activities.

The police claims that the militants were arrested on a tip off when they were waiting for a hitman belonging to the Babbar Khalsa International. The brother of Mehmood-ul-Haq, Assistant Sub-Inspector Abdal Qayoom, would help him carry out militant activities. The ASI was placed under suspension.