Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar Jan 4: Inspector General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Zulfikar Hassan, today said that militants take advantage of presence of common people on National Highway and at times escape after carrying out the attack. And in North Kashmir security forces arrested a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant who was planning to carry out attacks on the security convoys in the area.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in South Kashmir, Hassan said that at times militants flee after carrying out an attack on the National Highway by taking advantage of common people and security forces avoid collateral damage.
“The attacks on National Highway occur many times during a year. Many-a-times we are successful in killing those who attack. Sometimes due to presence of common people we don’t fire because that can result in collateral damage and we restrain ourselves. The militants sometimes take advantage of crowd and escape”, he said.
The IG CRPF said that installation of the CCTV cameras on the highway will definitely make an impact on its security. “I will not discuss plans but I will say that every type of measures are being taken and hopefully in coming days you will see the impact”, he said.
Hassan said that at times militants manage to escape from the security but security forces make their efforts to prevent them from fleeing. “Sometimes the stone-pelting takes place so that militants manage to escape. But security forces, CRPF, J&K police try not to make it successful and sometimes we do manage to stop militants from escaping”, he said.
In the meantime, security forces today arrested a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant from Handwara area of North Kashmir who was planning to carry out attack on security convoys in the area.
Police said that on a specific information one LeT militant Ashiq Ahmed alias Abu Haider was apprehended by Handwara Police and 21RR of army near Fruit Mandi crossing in Handwara in district Kupwara.
“On sustained interrogation he disclosed that he was a close associate of Abu Bakar a LeT Commander killed in Sopore few days back. On further discloser the arrested militant said that in near future he was planning to attack security forces convoy in Handwara area”, police said.
Police said that huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from him. These include one AK-47 rifle, 3 Magazines with live cartridges, one Chinese Pistol with one Magazine, three Hand Grenades, one Magazine Pouch, one Map and one Haversack.
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