Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 28: Srinagar police today arrested three persons involved in the incidents of robbery along National Highway which used to be carried out by them by using dummy weapons to instill fear.
The Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal, while addressing a press conference said that the modus operandi of the accused was that gang used to masquerade as militants and “forcibly stop the truckers using duress to kill and harm with the help of dummy weapons.”
While giving the details, the SSP said that a gang of robbers had been active on the NH as well as connecting roads since many months. “Since then there were umpteen numbers of reports of alleged loot of truck drivers-mostly non-locals-at gun point during night hours subsequently depriving the truckers of cash, mobiles, valuables”, he said.
“As a corollary of this a sense of insecurity and utmost fear had crept in the minds of public in general and truckers in particular and a lot many truckers would not dare to venture out in the night hours,” he said.
Further, on December 21 around 7:30 PM, this gang stopped a truck bearing registration number AP394-2199 at NH Parimpora near Fruit Mandi gate and looted driver Mohammad Asif Bhat of Haryana of Rs 23000.
Accordingly, police said, a case under FIR No 386/2019 U/S 392, 347, 120-IPC was registered at Police Station Parimpora and investigation was set in motion.
“Police, after strenuous efforts which included scanning the whole area where the accused had moved, questioning of suspects and locals around the scene of crime, correspondence with number of police stations where similar activities had taken place, exhaustive and practical examination of the complainant led to the cracking of the case within 72 hours,” police said.
In this connection, Police said, the kingpin Aqib Mushtaq Kenu alias Aqib Khoda son of Mushtaq Ahmad Kenu of Pamposh Colony, Palpora Noorbagh Srinagar was arrested. On his disclosure, his two associates Rameez Dar son of Ali Muhammad Dar of Pamposh Colony, Palpora Noorbagh Srinagar and Shabir Ahmad Pakhtoo son of G H Nabi Pakhtoo of Boatman Colony, Bemina Srinagar were arrested.
The recoveries that were made by the police include: two dummy AK-47 rifles, a dummy pistol, a knife (Khukhri) cash amounting Rs 14200, 2 SIM Cards, four mobile phones, jewellery and a red color Wagon-R Car bearing registration number DLICL-1454. Their fourth accomplice and the brother of the kingpin Amir Mushtaq alias Amir Khoda son of Mushtaq Ahmad Kenu of Pamposh Colony, Palpora Noorbagh Srinagar is absconding.
Police said that the gang was also aware of the disturbances created post August 5 and “took full advantage of that as they knew that police were over stretched in law and order problems thus their criminal activities got a fillip during the turmoil period.”
The SSP said that the gang was involved in more than 8 incidents of NH robbery and three cases were registered in Police Station Parimpora and one in Police Station Nowgam.
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