Seizure of 15 pistols, arrest of two ultras unearths plot of fresh bloodshed in Kmr
The recovery of a massive cache of small arms and ammunition from a terror hideout in Srinagar on Monday has exposed a plot of target killings to spread a fresh wave of fear across the Kashmir valley. The small arms haul, which includes 15 pistols, was seized in the Union Territory’s summer capital of Srinagar hours after The Resistance Front (TRF) threatened to carry out attacks on the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, scheduled to commence on 28 June.
Senior Police officials said that while developing an operation on technical and human intelligence, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Srinagar District Police swooped down on a terrorist hideout at Chhanapora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, late on Sunday night, and recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.
It is for the first time in the last over 22 years that 15 pistols have been seized in one single operation. IGP said that as many as 130 pistols had been recovered and seized by the Police and security forces since the beginning of the current year.
“With this consignment of pistols, bloodshed of soft targets could have been sustained for the next 6 months. Hybrid terrorists could have killed 30-40 people and maintained a wave of fear in Kashmir”, said an official.
Monday’s seizure includes 15 pistols and 30 pistol magazines with 300 rounds of ammunition and one silencer. A haul of 10 pistols and a large number of grenades was seized at Hajam Mohalla, Tad, on the LoC in Karnah, by the Kupwara District Police and security forces while it was being smuggled into the valley on 18 April 2022.
The Police and security forces officials, associated with the operation and investigating the terror networking, maintained that the small arms had to be distributed among the ‘hybrid terrorists’ for carrying out target killings, particularly in Srinagar and other parts of the Central Kashmir in Budgam and Ganderbal districts. They said that other characters of the network would be arrested or neutralized as they had been exposed.
Members of the minority Pandit and Sikh communities, BJP workers, lawyers and media persons besides the members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions, mainstream political workers, unarmed and retired Police officers, non-local workers and vendors have been the target of small arms attacks in the valley in the last 2-3 years.
The TRF claimed in Sunday’s communication that the government had started appropriating the peace and size of the pilgrimage in an attempt to showcase normalcy in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
“They are going to use Amarnath Yatra for their dirty politics. From mere 15,000 to 800,000 and from 15 days to 80 days is just to provoke the sensitivity of the Kashmir situation”, the TRF communication said and alleged that the pilgrimage was being used for “political and demographic gains”.
It was explicitly mentioned in the threat that TRF would “openly target any stooge who becomes a pawn of this regime and the blood of such stooges and pawns will spill like anything everywhere from Jammu and Kashmir”.
In the last over one decade, militants have lost the capacity and maneuverability of big IED attacks and suicide strikes on the security forces and Police but they have sustained attacks on soft targets. The killing of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in a suicide car bomb attack near Awantipora, on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, in February 2019, was the only major terror operation which took the heaviest toll in a strike since 1989. However, no big attacks have occurred in the UT after 2019.
On 4 April 2022, resident Pandit chemist Bal Krishen aka Sonu survived a terror attack at his pharmacy at Chotigam Shopian. On 5 October 2021, another resident Pandit chemist Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot dead at his pharmacy in Srinagar. Chairman of Tral Municipal Committee Rakesh Pandita was gunned down in Tral on 2 June 2021. Sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti was shot dead at his home at Luka Bhawan, Anantnag, on 9 June 2020.
Pistols were used in all these attacks on the soft targets. Even in Srinagar, pistols were used in killing a Sikh teacher Supinder Kaur, her teacher colleague Deepak Chand, jeweller Satpal Nischal, dhaba owner Akash Mehra, lawyer Babar Qadri and around 10 Police officials and some non-local workers in the last 3 years. In another incident two Railway Police Force personnel were killed in a pistol attack at Kakapora Train Station in Pulwama on 18 April 2022.
Meanwhile, J&K Police said that it has arrested three militants of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, who were allegedly involved in the conspiracy and killing of a Sarpanch last month in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.
On April 15, Independent Sarpanch Manoor Ahmad was shot dead in an orchard at Goshbugh Pattan.
Police said they have cracked the murder case and arrested three “hybrid” militants.
An officer identified the three as Noor Mohammad Yatoo, Mohammad Rafiq Parray and Ashiq Hussain Parray — all residents of Goshbugh, Pattan
Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Rayees Mohammad Bhat said questioning of the militants revealed their plan was devised by LeT commander Yusuf Kantru and Hilal Sheikh — both were killed in the Malwah encounter on May 21 and 22.
He said the murder was executed by two — one a recent infiltrate identified as militant Gulzar Ganaie – who was killed in a recent encounter at Bandipora, while the other Umar Lone of Wussan, is still at large
A police statement said the three suspects were apprehended by a joint team of Baramulla Police and Army’s 29 Rashtriya Rifles.
He said a particular module in Goshbugh had been tasked to identify and attack PRIs (panchayat representative institutions) and other civilians and soft targets for which pistols and ammunition were provided to the apprehended hybrid terrorists by old sleeper cell of the LeT.
“Interrogation of the apprehended individuals is likely to give further inputs for future counter terrorism operations, he said.
Three Chinese pistols, three magazines, two grenades and a pistol round were recovered from the militants.
“The successful apprehension of the three terrorists and the recovery of the arms and ammunitions has solved another sensational case in Baramulla and foiled major terror plots planned in future,” he added .
