Naveed, Noman stayed in Kashmir for 64 days

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 6: The captured Pakistani militant of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba has revealed to his interrogators that before the fidayeen attack on a BSF convoy near Udhampur on Wednesday, he and his accomplice had stayed and moved in Kashmir valley for 64 days.

Sources privy to the compilation of his interrogation report revealed to STATE TIMES that 23-year-old Naveed of Faisalabad had initially given conflicting details of his passage into the valley but finally he disclosed that he had crossed the LOC after cutting the barbed wire fencing alongwith Noman in Nowgam sector of Handwara Police district on June 2^nd.

After their stay in Handwara and Baramulla for some days, the duo proceeded to a village near the famous shrine of Babarishi in Tangmarg area. On several occasions during the month of Ramazan, their group of four militants, including the guide Hamza, was treated with sumptuous Kashmiri waazwaan.

Naveed, who initially described himself as Qasim and Usman, gave the Pakistani mobile phone number of his brother Nadeem which was found as real during verification by the interrogators. Unconfirmed reports said that one of the officers managed to call Nadeem with his Delhi-based cellphone and informed the receiver that his brother Naveed was in his custody.

Naveed revealed that he and his accomplice put up at different hideouts, mostly at the houses of LeT’s overground workers, in Pulwama, Awantipora and Khudwani village of Kulgam district in South Kashmir. It was in that separatists-dominated village that the militants hired a truck that carried them all the way to Samroli, 15 Km short of Udhampur, before carrying out the fidayeen attack. He claimed that he and Noman stayed in the truck for some hours of the previous night at Tamatar Morh, between Batote and Patni Top.

The interrogators are still trying to learn whether the fidayeen duo’s final destination was Samrohli only or they had been tasked with executing a suicide attack on the Northern Command headquarters of Army in the garrison town of Udhampur on the strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway.

As of now, Naveed has stuck to his story that they had to attack the Amarnath Yatra but he has not given a convincing reply as to why the militants waited till the Yatra convoy passed and they attacked a rear convoy of BSF. He has said that according to the plan, they had been asked to escape towards Sanasar heights and hide somewhere for two days and assured that one of the men from the outfit would subsequently guide them back to the Valley.

The class 11^th  dropout, according to sources, claimed to have been indoctrinated by a Tableegi Jamaat and later completed the special training of ‘Daura-e-aam’ and ‘Daura-e-khaas’ at an LeT camp in Pakistan. He said that he was inducted as a member of the guerrilla outfit after he was shown videos of fighting and “atrocities of armed forces and Police on the Kashmiri Muslims”.

Significantly, Naveed claimed that he had been launched for the Jammu mission by the top wanted LeT commander Abu Qasim who was allegedly mastermind and executor of high profile attacks on Army including the killing of eight soldiers in a daredevil attack on the highway bypass near Hyderpora in August 2012.

Remarkably, Qasim was said to be among the three LeT militants who got trapped in a gunbattle at Kakpora village of Pulwama district on Thursday evening.

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Two LeT militants killed in Pulwama encounter

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 6: At least two militants of Lashkar-r-Tayyiba are believed to have died in a fierce encounter with Police and security forces in Kakapora village of Pulwama district in South Kashmir on Thursday.
Informed sources told STATE TIMES that troops of Rashtriya Rifles 50^th Bn, CRPF and a unit of Special Operations Group of Pulwama District Police launched a cordon-and-search operation on the basis of a tip off which indicated presence of two militants at a hideout.

According to the tip off, the LeT militant Mohammad Afzal Shah alias Talib had reached a neighbour’s house for the purpose of meeting his family members.

Sources said that the holed up militant opened fire and made unsuccessful attempts to escape as they found themselves under cordon. However, in the gunbattle, troops shot dead Afzal alias Talib who had joined militancy after completing his Masters in Physical Education in a University in Maharashtra.

DIG South Kashmir Nitish Kumar said that the residents of Kakapora were more or less calm but those from the neighbouring villages of Lelhar and Sambora trooped into the village and resorted to stone pelting on Police and armed forces to fail their operation. “We tackled the situation effectively while facing stone pelting till late in the night. Troops have destroyed the target house and killed the second holed up militant. But it is possible that total of three militants have died”, DIG Kumar told STATE TIMES from the site of encounter.

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UDHAMPUR ENCOUNTER UPDATE 11.35 AM

Two BSF men, one militant killed in J&K highway encounter

◆10 BSF personnel injured

◆Second militant escapes, holds hostage 3 civilian while fleeing but tracked by phone signals


Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Aug 4: Two soldiers of the Indian paramilitary Border Security Forces (BSF) and a militant died when two militants attacked a convoy of the armed forces near Udhampur on Jammu - Srinagar national highway on Wednesday.

Authoritative sources from Jammu told STATE TIMES over telephone that a group of two heavily armed militants in combat fatigue ambushed the routine morning convoy of BSF at a small market near Narsu Nallah, 15 Km from Northern Command headquarters of the Army at 7.15 pm. Even as the forces gunned down one of the militants, two soldiers died and 10 others sustained injuries in the gunbattle.

Deputy Commissioner of Udhampur Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary confirmed to this correspondent that two BSF personnel got killed and 10 more injured in the encounter. He said that BSF shot dead one of the two assailants but one of them escaped towards the uphill.

Dr Chowdhary said that the fleeing militant took three civilians hostage and escaped while using them as human shield. However, forces later traced him and held him in a tight cordon. "They are trying to avoid the civilian casualties but there is little possibility of the militant's escaping. Forces alongwith Police have launched a massive cordon and search operation", Dr Chowdhary said.

Dr Chowdhary said that the routine caravan of Amarnath pilgrimage had passed smoothly from the same spot at 6.45 a.m. when the militants ambushed the BSF convoy. He said that the Yatra was going on and all the pilgrims were safe. "No pilgrims has been hurt as their caravan has passed on towards Kashmir smoothly half an hour earlier", he asserted.

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Two soldiers killed, 2 injured in ‘confusion firing’ in Tral

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Aug 4: Two soldiers got killed and two more injured in a shootout between two units of Army in Tral area of South Kashmir late on Tuesday night.

Informed sources told STATE TIMES that two soldiers died and two more were injured when two units of Rashtriya Rifles 42^nd battalion opened fire on each other near Noorpora village of Tral at around 9.30 pm on Tuesday night. Sources said that the shootout appeared to be the result of confusion with regard to the identity of each other between two units of RR 42 Bn.

Sources said that one soldier died on the spot and three more sustained injuries. They were rushed to Army’s 92 Base Hospital for treatment where one more soldier succumbed to injuries. Sources identified the soldiers killed as Sepoy Lal Chanlima Ghatak and N.K. Mohan.

Senior Superintendent of Police Awantipora, Mohammad Irshad confirmed the death of two soldiers in the shootout. He said that one soldier was injured. According to him, one soldier died on the spot and one of the two injured soldiers later died at the hospital. SSP maintained that the troops of two units got confused with regard to the identity of each other. Both perceived that they had come across the militants, he told STATE TIMES from the spot.

The shootout has taken place in a militant-infested area where Hizbul Mujahideen’s most dreaded militant of South Kashmir Burhan has established a strong base. According to sources, even today, troops were in ambush for Burhan, over a specific information, when the soldiers of another unit passed by and the encounter took place. Burhan is the militant who in July released pictures and videos of himself and other militants of his group on social media---including YouTube and Facebook---creating a sensation all over the valley. His brother had earlier got killed in Army’s controversial shootout at a hideout in upper Tral.

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Hizb ‘Div Commdr’ found dead in rivulet

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 3: One of the most wanted commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen, Tariq Ahmad Mir of Handwara, who according to the Jammu and Kashmir Police was ‘second-in-command’ to the Lashkar-e-Islam chief Qayyum Najar, was on Monday found dead in a rivulet in Sumbal area of Bandipore district.

Informed official sources told STATE TIMES that 36-year-old Tariq Ahmad Mir alias Tariq Mawri of Adoora Mawar (Handwara), who operated under the code-names of Zahid and Arif, was found dead in Ferozpora Nallah in Mirgund-Sumbal belt of North Kashmir. His body was first sighted by the local labourers who, as usual, had gone to extract sand from the rivulet. On search of the body, Police claimed to have recovered a Pakistani-made Shaheen pistol with nine rounds of 9mm calibre from a belt.

For hours of the day, Police attempted to ascertain the identity of the suspected militant. A Police party also called on the family members of the North Kashmir’s most wanted militant Qayyum Najar in Sopore. However, his relatives insisted that it was not Najar. They claimed that they had never seen the man whose photographs were shown to them.

It was towards late afternoon that Handwara Police got the deceased identified as Tariq Ahmad Mir of Adoora Mawar. Until recently, when Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin announced Najar’s expulsion from the organisation, Tariq reportedly held the rank of the outfit’s “Divisional Commander” in Sopore-Handwara belt.

Sources said that Tariq’s body was carried to Handwara and handed over to his foster father Mohammad Sultan Mir. According to the Police reports, around 4,000 people participated in Namaz-e-Janazah before chanting pro-Azadi and pro-Pakistan slogans.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, Gareeb Das, told STATE TIMES that while holding the rank of Hizbul Mujahideen’s “Divisional Commander”, Tariq was also the “second-in-command” of the front guerrilla outfit ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ that had spread a wave of terror all over the Valley, particularly in Sopore and Srinagar, with a series of attacks on the people associated with mobile telephony operations. Significantly, Salahuddin announced Najar’s expulsion from Hizbul Mujahideen last month, holding him responsible for innocent killings and attacks on mobile telephony operators.

Separatist circles had widely labelled Lashkar-e-Islam as a front organisation floated by and operating under the direction and command of the Indian Army. However, in a Press conference, Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar said that Najar and his group were operating ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ under cover and they were involved in half-a-dozen civilian killings in Sopore area.

DIG Gareeb Das said that over a dozen FIRs stood registered against Tariq at different Police Stations. “We are still collecting the details of the crimes committed by him. As of now, we have found him booked in nine FIRs. He was involved in all the recent civilian killings in Sopore area and getting four Police personnel including SHO trapped and killed in an operation at Hygam. He had targeted SDPO Pattan in an IED attack in Nihalpora”, DIG said. He claimed that Tariq was an IED expert who had recruited a number of youths for Hizb and Lashkar-e-Islam. According to DIG, Tariq and Najar, were travelling in a Tavera from Palhalan (Pattan) to Srinagar, on Srinagar-Baramulla highway, late on July 31 when they were stopped by a Police naka at Mirgund. On being asked about their identity and destination, they produced fake identity cards and claimed that they were going to see their ailing brother in a hospital. However, as soon as SHO Pattan Saleem Mir asked them to get down for physical frisking and checking of the vehicle, they opened fire. Three Policemen, including SHO, sustained injuries. Driver of the civilian Tavera, Bilal Ahmad Gujri, was also injured.

Both the militants managed to escape while abandoning the vehicle. Police alerted different units of RR 2^nd Bn and RR 29^th Bn, CRPF besides Pattan and Sumbal Police. The militant duo succeeded to give a slip to at least two Police and Army nakas. However, a Police party chased away the duo. Even as Qayyum Najar escaped successfully, Tariq drowned into a rivulet. Not sure about the identity of the man who drowned, Police and armed forces maintained calm but continued search. Tracker dogs had indicated the two militants’ movement towards Sumbal.

There was no clue on Saturday and Sunday. However, on Monday, Tariq Mir’s body was spotted in the rivulet. It had bloated and had a small cut on the nose.


DIG said that Tariq had joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 2001. He had received guerrilla training at a camp in PoK and returned in 2004. Later, he went back to PoK and returned in 2010. Police and Army claimed that Tariq’s death by drowning had caused a major blow to militancy in North Kashmir.

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SHO, 2 PSOs, driver injured in militant strike on Kashmir highway

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Jul 31: Station House Officer (SHO) Pattan Inspector Mohammad Saleem Mir was injured alongwith his driver and two personal security officers (PSOs) when suspected militants attacked a Police party at Mirgund on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway on Friday evening.

Informed sources told STATE TIMES that a unit of Police Station Pattan and Police Division Mirgund had put up a naka at Mirgund in the evening after receiving raw inputs regarding possible passage of some militants from Sopore to Srinagar. At around 8.30 p.m. when the Police signalled a Tavera, bearing registration number JK01Q-8792, two unidentified gunmen in it lobbed a hand grenade and fired indiscriminately.

Inspector Saleem Mir, who was in the front, got injured alongwith his two PSOs, namely Dilshad Khan and Mushtaq Ahmad. The civilian driver of his privately hired vehicle Bilal Ahmad Gujri, also sustained injuries. Others of the police party retaliated the fire but the assailants escaped successfully in the reverse direction. Later, all the three injured Policemen were evacuated and admitted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar. The civilian driver with minor splinter injuries was admitted in SKIMS Medical College Bemina.

Doctors attending to the injured at the military hospital said that only the Inspector had sustained a gunshot injury. His PSOs, they said, had splinter injuries. All of them were declared as stable.

Sources said that the assailants abandoned their vehicle which was seized by the Police after the militants escaped in the neighbourhood.

Even as most of the Police officials maintained that they were still busy to ascertain the identities and the organisational affiliation of the assailants, authoritative sources insisted that the assailants were none other than the cadres of the expelled Hizbul Mujahideen commander Qayyum Najar. Najar, the group’s top commander for over three years, has been expelled from Hizbul Mujahideen by chief commander Syed Salah-ud-din last week in the wake of a chain of attacks on mobile telephone operators in Sopore, Pattan and Srinagar.

Deputy Inspector General of Police in North Kashmir Gareeb Das told STATE TIMES that the Police party seized the Tavera used and abandoned by the unidentified militants. He said the identity of its owner would be ascertained by tomorrow as Police had immediately launched an extensive investigation. "We have launched a cordon-and-search operation in the locality alongwith Army and CRPF. We hope to get some clue about the identity of the two militants and their hideout", Mr Das said.

DIG said that it was a routine naka as some inputs last week suggested passage of militants by vehicles from North to South Kashmir. He said that the Tavera was intercepted when it was on way towards Srinagar from Sopore. According to him, Police had laid seven nakas on the highway from Sopore to Srinagar.

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Governor Vohra wants to be relieved on 'health grounds'
 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Jul 29: On completion of seven years at Raj Bhawan, Narenda Nath Vohra has desired to be relieved as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir on 'health grounds'.
 
STATE TIMES has learned from highly placed bureaucratic sources that in the middle of the current month, Mr Vohra sent a confidential communication to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, seeking his retirement as the J&K Governor. According to these sources in Government of India, Mr Vohra has pleaded that he may be relieved around completion of the ongoing Amarnath Yatra as he was feeling it hard to discharge his responsibilities on account of "age and health".
 
Mr Vohra, according to these sources, has been advised to continue till the appointment of his reliever.
 
A retired IAS officer, who served as Union Home Secretary during the peak of militancy in Punjab and beginning of the armed insurgency and political strife in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Vohra had been appointed by Dr Manmohan Singh's UPA government as its interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir. During his frequent visits to Srinagar, he established liaison with a section of the separatist leaders, trying to rope them in for a political dialogue with New Delhi.
 
With his communication of condolences to the separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani on the death of latter's daughter Surraya Jan, Mr Vohra attempted to build a bridge with the Hurriyat stalwart. He however failed to evoke a response he expected and also experienced from some of the moderate separatists.
 
In July 2008, when Governor Lt Gen S.K. Sinha's term ended with the eruption of a regional and communal strife in Jammu and Kashmir, followed by fall of Ghulam Nabi Azad's Congress-PDP coalition, Mr Vohra was appointed as Governor. He functioned as Governor all through the turbulent summers of 2008 and 2010, both times handling the affairs with confidence and aplomb. Assembly elections of 2008 and 2014 besides Lok Sabha elections of 2009 and 2014, as also the Panchayat elections of 2011, were held successfully under Mr Vohra's leadership.
 
Upon the completion of his first term of 5 years, Mr Vohra was again appointed Governor in 2013. However, after tye change of regime and in the wake of removal and resignation of over a dozen Governors and Lt Governors in 2014, Mr Vohra had offered to quit. According to reports, on more than one occasions, he was advised to continue in office with the assurance that the Narendra Modi government had immediately no intention to appoint a new Governor in the sensitive border State of Jammu and Kashmir.
 
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