*SIT constituted as Pak ultra reveals wider plan
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 6: In second terror attack in two days, militants tonight attacked Sangh police post, about 15 kilometers from Basantgarh police station in Udhampur district injuring three Special Police Officers (SPOs) as exchanges went on till midnight tonight even as Army, CRPF and police teams were rushed from Panara, Ramnagar and Basantgarh to assist the few SPOs present in the police post.
Confirming the terror attack that came within 40 hours after yesterday morning’s attack on BSF at Narsu, Samroli, official sources said that two militants attacked Sangh police post under the jurisdiction of Basantgarh police station in Udhampur district at 9.25 pm by opening firing on the police personnel.
They said two SPOs—Gul Mohammad and Rajesh Kumar have been injured in the firing.
“We have rushed CRPF and police teams from Ramnagar and Basantgarh to Sangh to assist the few police personnel at Sangh police post. CRPF teams from Panara have also been rushed to the spot,” DC Udhampur Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told the Excelsior.
Mohammad Fareed son of injured SPO Gul Mohammad told the Excelsior on phone from Sangh that his father had sustained two gun shot wounds in abdomen and leg. He said last gunshot was heard at 12.15 am. He added that there was no medical facility at Sangh and no provision of shifting the injured to hospital.
Official sources said there was deployment of a total of eight police personnel at Sangh police post but at the time of attack, there were only four police personnel, mostly the SPOs, present inside the police post. Rest four police personnel had come down to Ramnagar on training. The injured SPOs returned the firing by the militants but had obsolete weapons as compared to automatic rifles with the militants.
Number of the militants was stated to be two.
Latest reports said that three SPOs had been injured in the firing. Third SPO Sandhu was injured later.
Sources said apart from CRPF and police, the Village Defence Committee (VDC) members were also rushed to the spot but it would take lot of time for them to reach to the site of encounter.
SDPO Ramnagar Abhishek Sharma and SHO Basantgarh Inspector Vikram Singh Manhas had left for the spot with ‘nafri’ but were expected to reach Sangh only in early hours of the morning.
MLA Ramnagar RS Pathania blamed police for the attack. He said there was CRPF establishment at Lodhra and Chill, which fall close to Sangh, but they had been removed from there.
“I had asked police not to remove the CRPF but they didn’t listen, leading to the militant attack,’’ Pathania said and charged police with “major security lapse’’. He said the police post was accommodated in a kucha room.
Pathania said the local people had been informing police about movement of the militants in upper reaches but they were took it casually.
According to sources, police had lost communication with the SPOs after about one and half hours of the attack. There was no provision at Sangh to shift the injured to Basantgarh during the night. There was no medical facility available at Sangh, which could put lives of injured SPOs to danger.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) today joined investigations in yesterday’s terror attack at Narsu, Samroli in Udhampur district on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway as four members high level team of the Agency from New Delhi grilled Pakistani militant Mohammad Naved Yaqub, who was captured alive by people and VDC members after the gun-battle yesterday even as police constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate the case as the District Magistrate Udhampur immediately accorded sanction for prosecution of the terrorist.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the NIA today registered FIR in yesterday’s terror attack. The NIA has appointed Atul Goel, SSP as Chief Investigating Officer in the case.
Earlier, four member NIA team comprising IG Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Anil Shukla, DIG, Atul Goel, SSP (former SSP Jammu) and Dr Ajit Singh, SP joined interrogation of Naved Yaqub at the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) Miran Sahib during the day and later returned to New Delhi.
In addition to NIA, several other Central and State Intelligence and security Intelligence agencies today joined interrogation of Naved at the JIC Jammu. Before flying back to Srinagar, Director General of Police (DGP) K Rajendra and Intelligence chief IGP AG Mir also quizzed the militant along with NIA team to ascertain targets of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit and other information Naved had about South Kashmir module of the outfit to which he belonged.
Sources said the NIA Team flew-in here in a special plane for questioning of Naved, who was captured alive by the villagers and VDC members from a hilly area yesterday after his colleague Noman alias Momin was gunned down by the BSF. Two BSF jawans were killed and 13 others injured in the encounter.
Naved is being considered as prize catch by the Indian Government as he was first Pakistani militant to be nabbed alive in an encounter after the arrest of Ajmal Kasab on 26/11/2008 following Mumbai attacks.
Naved has made very sensational disclosure during the interrogation. He has revealed that it was Mohammad Qasim alias Abu Qasim, South Kashmir operational head of the LeT, who had assigned the task to them for carrying out attack on security forces convoys, Amarnath ji pilgrims or VVIP vehicles on Jammu-Srinagar National highway.
Naved disclosed that he was a school dropout after 11th class in Faisalabad and was lured into the militancy by a Village Head, who was working for Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s Hafiz Sayeed.
Naved, who remained composed during the night-long interrogation after some funny statements yesterday following his arrest that the Intelligence agencies believed he had reportedly made under the influence of drugs, told sleuths today that he had undergone two training modules–‘Daur-e-Aam’ and ‘Daur-e-Khas’–of the LeT group in Islamabad. While the first module teaches the terror cadre of physical fitness, mountaineering and using of small arms, in the second they are trained in assault rifles and manufacture of small explosives.
In his early 20s, Naved disclosed that he had infiltrated into India from the LoC in Kupwara sector by cutting the fencing and stayed at Tangmarg and Baba Reshi, where he came into contact with Abu Qasim along with Momin. Some militants with whom he had infiltrated before Ramzan arranged his meeting with Qasim, who asked him to shift his base to Awantipura-Pulwama in South Kashmir where he remained inside a cave located on a hill side.
The group split into two and he along with Noman moved to Kulgam in South Kashmir from where they boarded a truck to Jammu on Monday. The truck had been arranged for them by Qasim. The truck driver, who hasn’t been identified so far was also a Lashkar operative. He took the militants to Patnitop after brief halt at Ramban, where all three had tea. They spent night in the truck between Patnitop and Kud and shifted to Narsu tomorrow morning. The truck driver had left at least three hours before when the militants carried out the attack. This, according to source, was done on the instructions of Qasim to give safe passage to the truck driver.
Sources admitted that it was “big lapse” on part of police and various other security agencies as the two militants travelled in the truck with sophisticated weapons from Kulgam to Narsu, Samroli (nearly 200 kilometers) and even spent the night near Patnitop without being checked anywhere by any security agency including police. The security lapse took place despite the fact that high alert was being maintained on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway due to ongoing annual Amarnath ji pilgrimage, which was also on target of the two militants.
Naved will be taken to all the places in which he had claimed to have stayed after infiltrating from across the border to verify the facts.
Meanwhile, police gave midnight burial to the body of slain militant Noman at an unidentified place in the mountains somewhere along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. This was done as the people at both Chenani and Udhampur had refused to allow burial of Pakistani militant in their area.
Sources said the body was buried with full rituals in the midnight last night in a hilly area. The location has been kept secret, they added.
In another development, police today constituted a SIT for investigations of entire terror attack yesterday, whose FIR No. 60/2015 under Sections 120, 120-B, 307, 302 RPC, 7/25 Arms Act and 15/16 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act has been registered at Chenani police station.
The SIT to be supervised by Additional SP Udhampur Mohan Lal Kaith comprised Parshant Mahajan, Chief Prosecuting Officer, DPO Udhampur, Vinod Kumar Sharma, SDPO Chenani, Mahesh Sharma, SHO Chenani, Sohan Singh, Sub Inspector and Mohammad Yunus, ASI.
“The SIT will inspect all aspects of the case,” sources said.
In a related development, District Magistrate Udhampur, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary today gave prosecution sanction against captured Pakistani militant Mohammed Naved for waging war against the country.
“It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that an offence of criminal conspiracy has been committed by the terrorist which attracts the provisions of sections 121 and 121-A RPC. Sanction is hereby accorded as per the provisions of Section 196 CrPC for prosecution in the court of law following due procedure established under law,” the DM said in a prosecution order here today.
While Section 121 of Ranbir Penal Code is waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India, Section 121-A is conspiracy to commit offences punishable by Section 121.
Section 196 of CrPC deals with prosecution for offences against the State and for criminal conspiracy to commit such offence.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh today spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and sought suitable cash rewards and jobs for the civilians and the VDC members, who nabbed the Pakistani militant alive and averted a major tragedy. He said the State Government will also take a decision on the brave civilians very soon.
Meanwhile, BSF today paid homage to martyred jawans Rockey and Subhendu Rai, who not only laid down their lives fighting militants involved in the Udhampur terror attack but also averted major casualties.
BSF Inspector General, Jammu Frontier, Rakesh Sharma led the force in paying tributes to the jawans at the headquarters of the paramilitary here.
Besides Sharma, top officers and jawans of the force laid wreaths on the bodies of the slain jawans amid shouts of “Rockey-Subhendu amar rahay” (long live Rockey and Subhendu).
Saluting the bravery of the valiant soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the terror attack, the BSF men played the last post.
The bodies of the two martyrs were then carried to flower-laden trucks for their final journey to their native places in Haryana and West Bengal.
“Last rites of the martyrs with full military honours will be performed at their native places Haryana and West Bengal”, the IG BSF told reporters.
Rockey and Subhendu Roy laid down their lives while fighting terrorists during an attack on a BSF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Udhampur district yesterday.
A Pakistani militant was killed while another Pakistan terrorist was captured alive during the attack in which 13 BSF jawans were injured.
“Yesterday, our convoy was attacked by terrorists. We lost two brave soldiers. One of them was Rockey, who not only stopped a terrorist from entering the bus but despite being injured killed the terrorist”, the IG said.
“Because of his active role and alertness, other lives of BSF jawans were saved. It was gallant act of Rockey. We salute him for his bravery”, Sharma said.
“His second fellow Subhendu, who was also sitting in the bus, also tried to stop the terrorists but because the volume of the fire was so heavy, he received bullets. But despite that he tried to save other jawans by laying down his life,” he said.
Asked which route was used by the militants to cross over to J&K from Pakistan, Sharma said, “It is matter of investigation. Interrogation is being done by J&K Police. I cannot say anything on that definitely. He is changing his statements frequently”.
Asked if the militants intended to attack the Amarnath yatra convoy, he said, “One terrorist has been captured alive and I hope to get some facts out”.
Sharma said the best possible security measures have been taken along the IB and it is not easy to cross over to this side from IB.
Asked if the BSF was the target, he said it was just chance and the force was not the main target of terrorists.
“They were looking for a target and BSF convoy passed and it was targeted,” he said.
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