Saturday,
January 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Two LeT ultras held in Batala
Snow in J&K forces militants to Punjab plains
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service
Javed Ahmed Malik and
Altaf Hussain Dar, both listed terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba,
arrested by the Batala police on Friday. — Photo Rajiv Sharma |
Batala, January 3
Snowfall in the higher reaches of the troubled Jammu and Kashmir has forced ISI-sponsored terrorists to shift their hideouts to the plains of Punjab, especially in the border district of Gurdaspur. This was revealed during an interrogation of two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants arrested by the Batala police. The district police chief, Dr Naresh Kumar, said here today that this information had been obtained from the documents seized from the arrested terrorists. The accused were given the task of targeting vital installations of the Army, bridges and eminent persons with a view to creating panic in the region. The letters, written on the letterhead of the LeT, also mentioned the code names of ‘secret operations’. Dr Naresh Kumar said surveillance was being kept on the deras of Gujjars who had settled along the Ravi. Most of the Gujjars who had earlier been leading a nomadic life had now settled here permanently. He said one of the arrested terrorists had worked with a newspaper published from Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from
collecting information about the Army and other vital installations, they would arrange ‘publicity’ for the LeT, a banned outfit. He said the letter revealed that the arrested persons were in touch with their masters in
Pakistan through high-powered wireless sets. The codes used during the conversation would be changed periodically. “Father is seriously ill” flashed on the wireless would mean that the LeT activist was in trouble. The terrorists have been identified as Altaf Hussain Dar and Javed Malik, residents of Aasnoor village in Anantnag district. They confessed that they had joined the LeT after coming in contact with its area commander, Jubaid, Sahid and Jarar who were operating in the area of Kulgam, Anantnag. The militants also said the ISI would pay handsome amounts, depending on the significance of the information (about Army or other vital installations) provided by them. The SSP claimed that the arrested militants were involved in the attack on the life of PDP candidate Abdul Aziz Jarar during the recently held Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The other documents seized from them included a list of telephone numbers and addresses of their leaders in Pakistan and a check-list of information about the Army and its deployment along the Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab (Dera Baba Nanak, Dian Nagar, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar). The firearms and ammunition seized from them included two mausers of .13 bore, 13 cartridges and four hand grenades.
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