By Bunty Mahajan
Jammu: The National Investigation Agency on Saturday carried out raids at 15 places in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with investigations into the drone attack at Indian Air Force Station in Jammu last month and to smash the network of the Lashkar-e-Mustafa, an off-shoot of Jaish-e-Mohammad, established from Jammu Kashmir to Bihar.
One person identified as Irfan Ahmed Dar, son of Mohammad Yakoob Dar of Batingoo, Anantnag was arrested in connection with LeM conspiracy case. During searches which were conducted with the assistance of J&K Police and CRPF, NIA teams seized many digital devices including mobile phones, pen drives, hard disks, laptops, memory cards, shells of used bullets, CDs, hand written jihadi material, ID card of Al-aqsa media, besides plastic face masks that are used during stone pelting among other incriminating materials.
Barely a few hours before the drone attack at IAF facility on early July 27 morning, Jammu Kashmir Police had apprehended a militant of the The Resistance Front, a frontal outfit of Lashkar-e-Toiba, from Jammu’s Narwal area along with a 5-kg IED. Identified as Nadeem Ul Haq, he had come all the way from Banihal to Jammu to plant an IED at some crowded place before he was apprehended from near a shopping mall on the evening of July 26.
On his disclosures, police arrested two of his associates – Talib Rehman of Kaskoot and Nadeem Ayub Rather of Shopian. They too confessed their involvement into the conspiracy to carry out an IED blast at some religious place in Jammu.
As both the incidents – TRF bid to plant IED in Jammu city and drone attack at IAF facility took place with a gap of less than 12 hours, NIA is investigating to find out the links between the two to nail Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafeez Saeed in Pakistan. The investigators investigating the drone attack at IAF Station suspect Lashkar-e-Toiba to be behind it.
About Lashkar-e-Mustafa, sources said that its chief Hidayatullah Malik was arrested by police in Jammu’s Kunjwani area while travelling in a car with UP registration number towards Jammu city in February this year. Some arms and ammunition were also seized from him.
Ever since his apprehension, police and NIA have arrested a number of people including two Kashmiri students studying professional courses on the outskirts of Chandigarh, his wife and two residents of Bihar. One of the Kashmiri student had travelled all the way from Chandigarh to Jammu to plant an IED, but he was arrested from B C Road area.
The NIA had last week arrested two Lashkar-e-Mustafa terrorists, one from from Jammu and another from Bihar, for allegedly being part of a conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Identified as Mohammad Arman Ali alias Arman Mansuri, 20, and Mohammad Ehsanullah alias Guddu Ansari, an NIA statement said that both were residents of Saran district in Bihar.
While the former was arrested in Bihar, the latter was arrested in Jammu. Both of them were allegedly involved in transportation of two separate consignments of illegal arms and ammunition from Bihar to Mohali in Punjab and Ambala in Haryana. Those weapons were further transported to Hidyat Ullah Malik, self declared commander-in-chief of LeM in Jammu and Kashmir.
