Police claim terror LeT network ‘busted’; government employee among three arrested

Tribune News Service
Jammu, August 31

A joint team of the Indian Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police said they arrested three people who were allegedly part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), officials said on Monday.

Police officials identified the three people who were arrested as Ghulam Hussain, Abdul Aziz and Ishfaq Ahmed, all residents of Reasi, from Mahore—once a hotbed for militancy in Reasi district.

Reasi Senior Superintendent of Police Rashmi Wazir claimed that the three people were allegedly trying to build a network for the militant organisation in the district and some areas of the Valley.

The officer said one of the three was a government employee, another a daily wager and the third a shopkeeper.

One of the other two was a labourer and the last one was a shopkeeper, the officer said.

The officer also claimed that the three had kept in touch with alleged LeT handler Mohammad Qasim, a resident of Mahore and had allegedly gone to Pakistan occupied Kashmir in 2002.

Wazir said: “Lashkar-e-Taiba’s major revival plan in Kashmir has been thwarted, three terrorists arrested (sic). They were in contact (sic) with ISI handler Mohammed Qasim. An FIR was registered in his matter and a Special Investigating Team (SIT) was formed for further investigation.”

“We have verified some of their back accounts and detected some benami transactions. Some more people will be arrested in this case. They were trying to lure family members of former terrorists,” she claimed.

The officer claimed that the police department had instituted a Special Investigation Team on August 5 this year to “identify those trying to revive LeT outfit” with Qasim’s alleged help.

Police claimed Qasim was trying to establish Over Ground Workers (OGWs) to help militants infiltrate India through Rajouri via Mahore and Nikin Gali to South Kashmir, especially Kulgam.

This is the second such alleged network that police claimed they busted in Jammu this month. Police had claimed on August 8 that it had “bust” a similar network in Jammu and arrested people they identified as Mudasir Farooq Bhat, Tauqil Ahmad Bhat, Asif Bhat, Khalid Latif Bhat, Gazi Iqbal and Tariq Hussain Mir.