Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 11: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today questioned senior Congress leader and former Minister G M Saroori in connection with its probe into terror attacks in Kishtwar district.
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Saroori, 67, who is Jammu and Kashmir Congress vice president and three-time legislator from Inderwal constituency of Kishtwar, was served a notice under Section 160 CrPC by the NIA, asking him to appear before it to answer “certain questions” relating to a case registered by the probe agency in the district in 2018.
“The questioning lasted for nearly one-and-a-half hour from 3.30 pm. Saroori reached the NIA office at the scheduled time at 11 am.
The communally sensitive Kishtwar had been rocked by a series of terror incidents since November 2018 after the hilly district was declared terrorism-free over a decade ago. The longest surviving Hizbul Mujahdeen terrorist, Mohammad Amin Bhat alias “Jehangir Saroori”, is dubbed as the brain behind the revival of terrorism in the district.
Terrorists shot dead senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar on November 1, 2018, while RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO were assassinated on April 9, 2019.
The militants also snatched the service rifle of the deputy commissioner’s PSO on March 8, 2019, and the rifle of the PSO of the People’s Democratic Party district president on September 13 last year.
The NIA is investigating all these the terror cases.
The first major success against terrorists in the district was registered on September 28 last year when security forces killed three ultras, including the mastermind behind the killings, Osama Bin Javed, in Ramban district.
In September last year, Saroori’s brother Mohammad Shafi was among a dozen persons booked in two separate FIRs for their alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen but was not arrested.
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