There Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants, involved in Friday’sattack on a police post here, have been arrested, police said in Srinagar onSunday.
“We have arrested three persons so far in connection withthe Chanapora attack case,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) of SrinagarHaseeb Mughal told reporters in Srinagar.
The SSP identified the arrested militants as Mushtaq, Junaidand Latief.
Mughal said the three belonged to JeM and were involved inthe attack on the Chanapora police post in which a sentry was injured.
They had also made a failed attempt to snatch his rifle.
“We collected the digital evidence and strengthened the intelligencegrid after the attack. We focussed on the suspects already on our radar. Wepicked them up, questioned them and during questioning, one of them confessedand gave us further details about the group, he said.
Giving details of the attack, the SSP said the three came toChanapora on a motorcycle, but left it some distance away from the police post.
One of them, named Junaid, went inside the police post withthe excuse of tracking the status of passport verification. He checked theplace and when he saw that the sentry there had no visible backup, he came outand told his accomplices that perhaps there is no backup for the sentry, so he(sentry) can be targeted.
Then he came back to the post and was accompanied by anotherperson named Mushtaq who was wearing a pheran and a helmet. When Mushtaq wasasked to remove the pheran for undergoing search, he took out a pistol andfired on the sentry, the SSP said, adding the sentry was injured and isundergoing treatment at SKIMS Hospital at Soura.
The senior police official said the militants also tried tosnatch the rifle of the injured sentry but had to leave it because the gun wasclamped with a chain to his belt.
In the meantime, the other policemen fired and they fledfrom the spot, he said.
He said police have recovered a Chinese pistol, twomagazines and six live rounds from them.
The motorcycle has also been recovered, he said, addingfurther investigations in the case were on.
Mughal said Mushtaq, a postgraduate from Kashmir University,was in touch with a JeM cadre, named Sameer from Pulwama district of southKashmir, and has been associated with the group for about a year.
“Sameer and Mushtaq were classmates in KU. It was onSameer’s direction that they tried to loot weapons in Srinagar, he said.
Junaid, the SSP said, was involved in a number ofstone-pelting cases, while Lateef is an overground worker (OGW) of the militantsand helped them with logistics.
He said the three were arrested from different places in Budgam district in cental Kashmir.