M A I N   N E W S

Hizb militant, J-K official held, arms seized
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 12
The Delhi Police has arrested a Hizbul Mujahideen militant and a Deputy Director of the Jammu and Kashmir Government and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from their possession.

Hizb militant Abdul Majid Bhatt, wanted under the Public Safety Act in J and K, was nabbed last evening by South West District Police from the New Delhi railway station with three detonators when he was about to board a train to escape to Nepal.

Mohammad Qayoom Khan, a Deputy Director with the Soil Conservation Department, was arrested in Srinagar by a Delhi Police team on charges of financing terror activities after receiving funds through hawala, said Mr B.S. Bassi, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range).

The arrests were made on the basis of disclosures made by members of Islamic Front militant outfit who had been arrested from near the airport here on July 1. “They had come to Delhi for a special task. They had been asked by their mentors to recce the area around the Palam airport and it seems terrorists were planning a major operation there,” Mr Bassi said.

The four activists of Islamic Front who had been arrested earlier, Saqib Rehman alias Masood, Hazi Gulam Muhiddun Dar, alias Zahid, Basir Ahmad Shah and Nazir Ahmad Sofi, were carrying a sketch of the Air Force station at Palam and an Army combat uniform with them when they were arrested.

Qayoom, who possesses a masters degree in agronomy, acted as a channel for routing hawala funds, Mr Bassi said, adding he had recently given Rs 50 lakh to the militants. He had also arranged fake currency of Rs 1 crore from Kathmandu and Patna from them. Those arrested earlier used these notes to dupe people by taking cheques from them and giving double the amount in return using the fake notes.

Qayoom’s wife is a doctor and one of his relatives works in the office of the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the JCP said no evidence had been found against the relative “who can be given a clean chit as of now.”

Majid Bhat’s brother Mustaq Ahmad Bhat was also a Hizbul militant. Till recently, he was the area commander of the outfit in Pulwama and had moved to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Delhi Police team had searched the houses of Abdul and Mustaq in J and K but could not locate them.

While Saqib was a Pak-trained militant, Zahid was an ISI agent involved in state politics and had even contested against PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti in last year’s Lok Sabha elections from Pulwama constituency. A Delhi Police team had gone to Srinagar with the accused and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition, besides a large amount of money, from the houses of Aaqib and Zahid. These included an AK-47 rifle, two magazines, 130 live cartridges, 15 grenades, a remote control device and a radio set used to explode devices, the JCP said. Saqib also found to have several bank accounts in Srinagar and Delhi containing nearly Rs 10 lakhs which were sealed.