KL Report
Srinagar
Police officers who investigated Bemina attack said the involvement of Hizb ul Mujahideen in the incident can’t be wished away. They said they would not seek any response from the armed forces for which Bashir Ahmad Mir, one of the militant handlers in the case, worked in the past.
“Right now the situation is that Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizb ul Mujahideen are working together,” a police officer associated with the investigation said on the condition of anonymity. “While LeT is supplying men, it is the Hizb that is offering shelters and other logistics.”
Hizb had staked the claim for the attack almost instantly after the news of deaths of five CRPF men was reported. Ten others were injured in the attack including four civilians. Both the militants were mowed down in the ensuring encounter.
Sleuths who have already announced the investigations over said the prime accused in the case is a resident of Uri who has been associated with militancy for a long time. He changed many parties, Kashmir Police Chief, A G Mir said. He was initially arrested in 1992 and after being released he went back to the militancy. In 2002 he was arrested again, this time under POTA, and was set free only in 2008. “This is the problem, some of them get recycled,” Mir said in a press conference.
Investigators revealed to Kashmir Life that Mir was an asset of the security forces and was working with the army as well. “But we have no reason to seek any response from any security agency,” one officer said. “We know how he handled the capsule of three LeT militants.”
It was a SIM card that was recovered from the one of the slain militant’s body that helped solve the case. Two calls were actually made from the particular SIM and both had gone to Mir, who accepted it voluntarily and later fetched the third militant to the police. It was the subsequent investigation that led to his neck-deep involvement in the case. Mukhtar Ahmad, another person who has also been arrested, was also a former militant.
Police has booked all the four, Pakistani militant who was captured alive, Mukhtar, Bashir and Pardeep Singh, in the multiple murders. Challan is being readied by the district police Srinagar.
