Busting an ‘infant terror module’ Jammu & Kashmir police on Friday claimed a group of ‘radicalised’ youth hailing from Banihal area of Ramban district in Jammu studying in Degree college, Anantnag were responsible for targeting Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) along Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on September 20. Two of the three youths arrested.
The serious development has alerted security agencies about the possibility of presence of more such active terror modules in the region. As attempts are being made to revive militancy in the region the State police is likely to launch massive crack down to bust these active terror modules.
According to police cyberspace is becoming big source of ‘radicalisation’ of youth in the region.
less than a month ago a third year student of B.TECH studying in Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri too had joined ranks of militancy raising many an eyebrows in the security establishment.
After passing his sixth semester exam the B.TECH student identified as Mohd Eisa Fazili had joined ranks of Zakir Musa’s terrorist outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. He hailed from Ahmed Nagar area of Soura in Srinagar, and was found missing from his hostel room on August 17.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Jammu Inspector General of Police, Jammu range Dr SD Singh Jamwal Friday said," after the SSB men deployed on security duty to protect construction workers engaged in the task of four laning work near Banihal tunnel were targeted on Wednesday evening the State police had immediately launched a man hunt to track down the attackers".
During routine surveillance and input gathering we zeroed in on a group of 'radicalised' youth who were active in social media. After developing credible information we launched a successful operation and arrested them from Banihal late Thursday evening along with the 'looted' weapons.
IG, Jammu range claimed, two out of three youth, who were part of the terror module, were third year B.Sc students of Degree College Anantnag while the third one was employed by the private engineering company engaged for four laning of the Jammu Srinagar National Highway.
The students were identified as 21 year old Gazanfar Iqbal Khan S/o Mohd Yaqoob Khan R/O Kaskoot Tehsil, Banihal. His father, currently working as forest guard was earlier affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen in year 1989 and had surrendered before police DySP Muneer Khan in 1990 at Banihal.
Another arrested youth has been identified as 25 year old Mohd Arif S/o of Ghulam Hassan Wani R/O Asher Tehsil Banihal. Arif was working with the construction company Navayuga and is believed to have facilitated the terror attack.
The third youth involved in the attack has been identified as 21 year old Aquib Waheed S/O Abdul Waheed Najar R/O Kaskoot tehsil, Banihal. He is yet to be arrested. One of his uncles Mohd Hussain Najar was Divisional commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in 1989.
His parents are teachers and one of his younger brother is student of IT in Gogjibagh area of Srinagar.
Commenting on the nature of links of these arrested youth with militant handlers IG, Jammu said a pistol was used by the highly motivated group of youth to target the SSB men. We are investigating the source of weapon.
Expressing serious concerns on 'radicalisation of youth from Jammu region as well, IG said these youth were motivated and radicalised since they were in valley in Anantnag. "They were radicalised and wanted to join militant ranks but because of the timely action by police we were able to neutralise them",he added.
He said since large number of local youth have been engaged in road construction work and other activities we will appeal to the private companies to go for police verification of their employees to prevent similar incidents.
When quizzed by reporters how these youth were radicalised IG, Jammu claimed though investigations are at a very preliminary stage i cannot comment much but at the same time i can say since they were studying in valley and this kind of atmosphere exists there where radicalisation can take place.He said the state police is keeping a close watch on the activities of suspected youth spending lot of time on social media to prevent them from getting in to the trap of militant handlers.