Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Sunday claimed to have arrested two chief commanders of two separate militant outfits including The Resistance Front (TRF) and Lashkar-e-Mustafa in the past few days across the UT.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, the Director-General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh said that police carried out two major successful operations and arrested two chief commanders of TRF and Lashkar-e Mustafa.
He said that to give a local name to a militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Toiba created an outfit named 'The Resistance Front' (TRF) while Jaish-e-Mohammad created 'Lashkar-e-Mustafa' to carry out militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh said that the major operations were carried out by the Anantnag police and Jammu police and busted the militant outfits by arresting their chief commanders.
He said that to sponsor militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir from across the border, the militant outfits, operating in Pakistan, have been trying to give new faces to militant outfits in J&K and from the last several months, two new groups were floated by the names TRF and Lashkar-e-Mustafa.
He said that TRF is being run by Lashkar-e-Toiba while the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Mustafa is being run by Jaish-e-Mohammad from across to border to carry out militant activities not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in some other parts of the country including Delhi.
Lashkar-e-Mustafa came into being recently in August last year, he said.
Singh said that the chief commander of Lashkar-e-Mustafa, Hidayatullah Malik, who was leading this outfit and was active for the last few months, was arrested by the police.
He said that Hidayatullah was working as an Over Ground Worker (OGW) for a long time and later became active to carry out militant activities sponsored by Jaish-e-Mohammad.
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He said this was a major success for the security forces and there have been major revelations by the Hidayatullah during interrogation.
He further said that in another major success one more chief commander of TRF, Zahoor Rather alias Sahil and Khalid, was also arrested.
Singh said that Zahoor was arrested during an operation on the intervening night of 12 and 13 February.
“Zahoor was active for a long time and was a trained militant. He was leading TRF. He was also working as an OGW. In 2002 he was working with Hizbul Mujahideen,” he said.
Singh said that Zahoor remained active for 5 years and later surrendered in 2006 and again became active in 2009.
He said that Zahoor was handed over the responsibility of running TRF in Jammu and Kashmir and he was involved in killing 3 BJP leaders in Kulgam last year.
Singh said that intensive questioning of Zahoor Ahmad is going on and it is expected that some more breakthroughs will take place trough Zahoor. Singh, while complementing the Jammu and Samba police, said that a major tragedy was also averted by arresting an associate of Al-Badr militant outfit and recovered IED from his possession.
“I congratulate the police officials who led this operation and arrested the Al-Badr associate to avert a major tragedy in Jammu region,” he said.
Meanwhile, IGP Jammu range said that they have been on high alert for the last three days as there were inputs that on the anniversary of Pulwama attack, militants groups may carry out some major attack at the Jammu bus stand.
He said that based on these inputs, checking points were established at critical points and last night a person namely Suhail was found roaming suspiciously in the area.
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“He was carrying a bag. One being questioned and checking of the bag, around 6.5 kg of IED was recovered. During questioning, he said that he was a student of a nursing college in Chandigarh. He was tasked by Al-Badr handlers in Pakistan to place the IED at one of these three places-- Raghunath Temple, Railway station and Jammu bus stand,” he said.
He said that on further questioning Sahil revealed that after placing the IED he was supposed to take a flight to Srinagar and was to be received by a high ranking OGW of Al-Badr, Shakeel Khan at Srinagar.
“After meeting Shakeel Khan he was supposed to become an active militant. This was his planning," he said.
The IG further said that the arrest of these militants helped in averting a major tragedy.
