Yogesh Sagotra
Jammu, Jul 18: Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday claimed to have busted a major militancy module in Jammu and recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the members of the module. Police said Pakistan was pushing arms and ammunition in J&K by using drones.
A police spokesman said that a joint team of Jammu Police, Kathua Police and SoG Jammu have solved Kathua drone incidents in which one drone was recently shot downed by alert troops on 29 May 2022 at Talli, Hariya Chak, Kathua which was loaded with payload including UBGL rounds, sticky bombs, etc while another drone which was shot downed at Manyari, Kathua on 20th June 2020, two years back is also solved which was carrying huge payload including M4 rifle and ther explosive material.
“Joint team during initial investigation apprehended many suspects on basis of technical analysis, police team subsequently zeroed in one person namely Habib resident of Harie Chak, Kathua. During the questioning he admitted his role as receiver of multiple consignments of arms and ammunitions dropped via drones controlled through Pakistan and also that he is part of illegal terror-associates network and further that he was motivated by one Faisal Muneer resident of Talab Khatikan, Jammu and is working on his directions,” he said.
He said that the consignments were received by Habib were further carried to Jammu by him and delivered to different persons at different locations on directions of Faisal.
“Upon this Faisal Munir was also picked and questioned thoroughly after which he accepted his link with Pak based handlers and his involvement in this terror nexus,” he said. “Faisal disclosed that he was in touch with Pak based handlers for more than two and half years and has received more than 15 drone dropped consignments dropped at multiple locations at Samba and Kathua including Manyari, Mawa, Hari e Chak etc.”
The spokesman said that these consignments were further delivered by him at different locations at Jammu and also in Kashmir Valley on directions of his Pak Handler. On the disclosure, police recovered AK 46 riffle, AK magazines, AK rounds, Pistols, magazines, rounds, silencer, grenades, weighing machine and weapon cleaning accessories etc.
Addressing a press conference here, Additional Director General Jammu Zone, Mukesh Singh said that in the militancy module busted in Jammu one militant operative from Doda namely Bashir Shaizan, presently operating from Pakistan alongwith another operative with code name Albert created this module in Jammu city and its peripheral with Faisal Munir resident of Talab Khatikan as its mastermind who was in touch with Lashkar e Toiba operatives from last two years..
“Fasisal Munir was also involved in 2000 Amarnath Yatra attack on Hari Singh High School in Jammu and was arrested and was later convicted and he is again attached with LeT from last two years.” ADG said.
Four to five more boys are also part of this Jammu based module with two among them have been arrested while few more arrests are to be made, he said adding that these boys are resident of Kathua and Samba and two among them arrested so far are identified as Habib Ahmed and Mian Sohail.
“A drone was shot down in Kathua one month ago in which large scale ammo was recovered and this Jammu based module was set to receive this consignment,” the ADG Police said, adding that this module had received a number of drone sorties of arms and ammunition with some consignment was with them while remaining one was sent to Kashmir.
“On disclosure of Faisal Munir, one AK47 rifle has been recovered from his house, eight pistols, eight grenades, one weighing machine and large scale ammunition has been recovered,” he said. “Seven sticky bombs, seven UBGL grenades were earlier recovered when drone was shot down last month in Kathua while this module was active in the area from last around two years and was even tasked to receive consignment of arms and ammunition being carried by a drone which was shot down by BSF in June, 2020.”
He said that besides this, fifteen pistols recovered by police in Srinagar a few months ago was also sent to Kashmir by this module run by Faisal and so far, arms and ammunition of around ten to twelve drone sorties has been recovered alongwith some cash which was also dropped through drones and was equally distributed among the members of module.
“A car used by this module for transporting the arms, ammunition has also been recovered,” he said.
He said that police also busted two modules in Rajouri and Reasi districts. ADGP Singh said that these two modules were created by a militant namely Qasim of Mahore Reasi who is presently operating from Pak with Altaf Hussain and Talib Hussain Shah were running these modules separately with both Talib and Altaf from Draj village of Budhal in Rajouri have been arrested.
He said that last year a grenade explosion took place in the house of BJP leader Jasbir Singh at Khandli in Rajouri in which a child got killed while many members of the family sustained injuries and the militancy module run by Altaf Hussain carried out this strike.
Similarly, the terror module run by arrested LeT militant Talib Hussain Shah had received five drone sorties in Rajouri in last one year and they received four AK rifles, eight UBGL grenades, eight Chinese grenades, four pressure mines, six pistols, five remote IEDs, eleven sticky bombs, two IEDs having weight 2 KG and 5 KG out of which three AK rifles, eight UBGL grenades, seven Chinese grenades, four pressure mines, remote IEDs have been recovered whereas out of eleven sticky bombs seven have been recovered, three used so far and two are still be recovered alongwith one AK rifle.
“This module was given three tasks including receiving drone dropped weapons and smuggling those to Kashmir, IED explosions in Rajouri areas and then bringing militants from Kashmir to Pir Panjal side.” ADG Police Jammu zone said.
He further said that Talib Hussain and his module members have been found involved in five terror cases so far which include two explosions in Kandi police station areas, grenade strike at Shahpur Budhal, shooting dead a young man Karamat Shah from Targain a few months ago and attempt to murder using a pistol on a man Ranjit Singh from Draj one and half years ago.
“All terror acts committed in Rajouri by these two modules have been worked and we also worked out Katra bus fire case to a major extent.” said ADG Jammu zone.
The members of the module were also planning target killings, ADG Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh added.
