Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 23: In a major success, Jammu police today foiled a major plot by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out Udhampur like terror attack in Jammu by apprehending a top militant of the outfit from Narwal by-pass near Bathindi road, where he had reached three days back and was staying in a rented room on directions of his Kashmir based mentors.
The Lashkar militant was arrested with Rs 47,000, which he had been given by the Lashkar commanders to create sleeper cells in Jammu, conduct recee of important installations like Jammu Railway Station, Bus Stand etc and find out the places, where the terror attack could be carried out on the pattern of Narsu, Samroli in Udhampur on August 5.
The militant captured by a joint team of Special Operations Group (SOG) Jammu, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) has been identified as Shabir Ahmad Malik, 22, a resident of Tral in Pulwama district of the Kashmir valley.
DIG Jammu-Kathua range Ashkoor Wani told the Excelsior that the militant was captured in well coordinated joint operation by Intelligence agencies and police. With the arrest of militant, a major plot by the LeT to create sleeper cells in Jammu, conduct recee of sensitive installations and then carry out Udhampur like attack has been foiled, he said.
Official sources said Shabir Ahmad Malik had reached the Jammu City three days back and was staying in rented room in the house of Amir Alam Gujjar at Bathindi. Early today, joint teams of SOG Jammu, IB and JKP laid a naka outside his house. As soon as the militant boarded a matador at Bathindi, the joint team captured him and whisked him away to the SOG Special Cell for sustained interrogations.
Police team in the operation was led by SDPO East Mohammad Rafiq.
Sources said Malik was affiliated with the LeT outfit and had been deputed here by Kashmir based leadership of the outfit to revive the militancy in Jammu City, where no militancy related incident had been reported for a long.
“The cash found in possession of the arrested militant had been given to him by the LeT commanders to distribute it for creating sleeper cells and reconnaissance missions of vulnerable areas, where presence of police and para-military forces was less, to carry out terror strikes in future,’’ they said.
According to sources, the militant was being grilled by joint teams of the SOG Jammu, IB, police and other agencies to ascertain the militants plans for Jammu as he was well connected with the Lashkar leadership especially that of South Kashmir.
“Some vital clues were expected of him,’’ sources said, adding this was the major plot hatched by the LeT outfit for terrorist strike in Jammu after August 5 attack at Narsu, Samroli on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Udhampur district by two Pakistani militants.
However, they pointed out, the timely arrest has thwarted the plot of the LeT.
They said sustained questioning of Malik was on and some more arrests on his disclosures were not ruled out. Police and SOG have also quizzed owner of the house, where Malik had taken a room on the rent and was putting up for the past three days to ascertain whether some contacts had come to meet him during this period.
It may be mentioned here that the militant attack at Narsu, Samroli in Udhampur district in the wee hours of August 5 was also planned and executed from South Kashmir in which two BSF jawans were killed and several others were injured. A Pakistani militant Momen was gunned down by the BSF in retaliation while his colleague Mohammad Naved was captured alive.
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