Excelsior Correspondent
-Excelsior/Younis Khaliq
SRINAGAR, June 13: Police today said that they have arrested a newly recruited militant tasked to carry out cop killings and rifle snatching in South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Shopian, Altaf Ahmad Khan told reporters that the militant identified as Umair Yaqoob alias Tiger, a resident of Jan Mohalla in the Shopian district, was apprehended at a check point by joint search party of Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles and police.
Khan said that the held militant was recruited by two top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants including Ayatullah Bhat, who was killed last month in an encounter and Waseem Ahmad Shah.
“Umair was specifically tasked to carryout major killing incidents in the heart of Shopian town. Earlier, on 27 May, during a joint search operation, he had escaped while taking advantage of crowd and traffic flow of main market Shopian. But he was identified. A Chinese pistol with six rounds was recovered from him and a case under FIR No 92/2015 stands registered against him,” the SP said.
Khan termed the arrest of Umair a major blow to militants’ sinister designs to de-stablise the peace and tranquility of the foot hill apple town of Shopian.
The SP said: “A Joint team of police and Army was formed to track the militants and new recruits who are active in Shopian district. The joint effort resulted in the apprehension of Umair.”
Khan said that before joining militant ranks, Umair was a hardcore stone-pelter. “Further probe is on,” he added.
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