Indian Spies Helping Rebels; 8 Arrested
SRINAGAR; 17, Sep 2013: Jammu and Kashmir police has launched a crackdown on intelligence sources and arrested eight such "assets" in recent weeks. The action was forced by several rebel attacks being linked to such informers, who enjoyed the patronage of top Indian security officials, sources said.
The eight include a "top asset" who had been detained several times but released after intervention from top levels in the state police, they said. Even though he had been arrested in the latest crackdown as well, top brass of the police are believed to have got him released again.
These high level "intelligence assets" are believed to have a role in a series of attacks including the June 24 attack on the Indian Army in Hyderpora — in which eight Indian troopers were killed — and the recent killings of policemen in south Kashmir.
The first alarm bells rang after the March 13 attack on a CRPF camp in Srinagar in which five CRPF men were killed. The two attackers were also martyred and police apparently found a defunct mobile phone SIM card in the trouser of one of them.
The card and other clues led investigators to a man in Uri whose village is close to the Line of Control and who had worked as an informer for Indian agencies.
Police said the man, 41-year-old Bashir Ahmad Khan, had brought the rebels to Srinagar and arrested him. He is believed to have claimed that he worked for an Indian intelligence agency in 1988-89 and had been sent across the border to collect information about the rebels. He also claimed he had briefly worked for rebel groups before being arrested in August 1993. He was released in 1996 and moved to Srinagar and started a business and lived with his brother who worked in the health department.
Khan was arrested again in 2001 by the Special Operations Group of J&K Police. This time, the Indian Army officer who had arrested him previously is believed to have got him freed.
Earlier this year, Khan brought three foreigner rebels from the Line of Control in Uri after he received a call from a guide on the other side. He helped them reach Srinagar and plan the attack on the CRPF camp, police allege.
While two rebels received martyrdom in the attack, the third was arrested from Khan's brother's house in Srinagar. Police also arrested a man named Pradeep Singh of Baramulla, who too worked for the health department, alleging he had given shelter to the three rebels in his Tangmarg house for a night before they reached Srinagar.
The second, much more serious case came when J&K Police arrested a top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba in north Kashmir, identified as Qari Naveed alias Fahdullah of Multan in Pakistan.
Fahdullah, source said, told his interrogators that a man deemed to be a "top asset" of Indian security agencies in Kashmir received Lashkar's new groups entering the state. This man, they said, had provided information that led to the recovery of a large cache of weapons in north Kashmir last year.
Although police had begun to suspect him, top officers for whom he was working had prevented his arrest, the sources claimed.
(with inputs from NDTV)
The eight include a "top asset" who had been detained several times but released after intervention from top levels in the state police, they said. Even though he had been arrested in the latest crackdown as well, top brass of the police are believed to have got him released again.
These high level "intelligence assets" are believed to have a role in a series of attacks including the June 24 attack on the Indian Army in Hyderpora — in which eight Indian troopers were killed — and the recent killings of policemen in south Kashmir.
The first alarm bells rang after the March 13 attack on a CRPF camp in Srinagar in which five CRPF men were killed. The two attackers were also martyred and police apparently found a defunct mobile phone SIM card in the trouser of one of them.
The card and other clues led investigators to a man in Uri whose village is close to the Line of Control and who had worked as an informer for Indian agencies.
Police said the man, 41-year-old Bashir Ahmad Khan, had brought the rebels to Srinagar and arrested him. He is believed to have claimed that he worked for an Indian intelligence agency in 1988-89 and had been sent across the border to collect information about the rebels. He also claimed he had briefly worked for rebel groups before being arrested in August 1993. He was released in 1996 and moved to Srinagar and started a business and lived with his brother who worked in the health department.
Khan was arrested again in 2001 by the Special Operations Group of J&K Police. This time, the Indian Army officer who had arrested him previously is believed to have got him freed.
Earlier this year, Khan brought three foreigner rebels from the Line of Control in Uri after he received a call from a guide on the other side. He helped them reach Srinagar and plan the attack on the CRPF camp, police allege.
While two rebels received martyrdom in the attack, the third was arrested from Khan's brother's house in Srinagar. Police also arrested a man named Pradeep Singh of Baramulla, who too worked for the health department, alleging he had given shelter to the three rebels in his Tangmarg house for a night before they reached Srinagar.
The second, much more serious case came when J&K Police arrested a top commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba in north Kashmir, identified as Qari Naveed alias Fahdullah of Multan in Pakistan.
Fahdullah, source said, told his interrogators that a man deemed to be a "top asset" of Indian security agencies in Kashmir received Lashkar's new groups entering the state. This man, they said, had provided information that led to the recovery of a large cache of weapons in north Kashmir last year.
Although police had begun to suspect him, top officers for whom he was working had prevented his arrest, the sources claimed.
(with inputs from NDTV)
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