KL Report
SRINAGAR
Jammu and Kashmir government Monday denied media reports that an arrested youth, allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in North Kashmir, was a Special Police Officer (SPO).
“As far as Fayaz Ahmad Dar is concerned, he is not an SPO. Someone has given you wrong information that he is a Special Police Officer. He is not at all an SPO,” Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Jammu on Monday.
Reports in a section of the press stated that Fayaz Ahmad Dar was an SPO and working as a driver of Javed Ahmad Dar, former minister and sitting MLA from Rafiabad Assembly Constituency, was arrested by Jammu police yesterday after recently apprehended LeT commander Qari Naveed alias ‘Fahad’, disclosed that he was part of the terror organisation.
Kichloo claimed that Fayaz is a militant and not SPO, and they have recovered ammunition from him.
“We have caught him…We had caught an LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) commander fromsitting MLA from Rafiabad Assembly Constituency,of the name of Fahad, he is a Pakistani. He had spoken about Fayaz Ahmad. Fayaz Ahmad is a civilian. He is not an SPO. We have arrested him. We have recovered an AK-47 and some explosives from his home. He has been arrested and investigations are on,” he said.
Rejecting strongly the notion that Fayaz had links with a former minister, Sajjah said, “I have stepped out of home, there are 20 people around me. Now, if someone among them is caught in an illegal act, what is the fault of the minister in that.”
“If he had some official status, had he been in police, had he been a constable, had he been a driver in police, we would have agreed that he should have been thoroughly enquired before being inducted into service,” he said.
Pertinently, Fahad, who was the Chief commander (operations) of LeT for north, was arrested from Bahrampora village of Sopore, by a joint party of police and Army on April 18.
