A Village Defence Committee (VDC) member, armed by the government to fight militants, shot himself dead with a service rifle in the Pir Panjal Valley’s Rajouri on Monday evening. Meanwhile, an arms haul was recovered in north Kashmir on Tuesday.
The incident took place around 9 p.m. on Monday, when neighbours found the victim, Suresh Kumar, 45, in a pool of blood at Bai Nambal village in Rajouri. The victim, who bore two bullet wounds in the abdomen, was a member of the VDC.
An official said the police had started an investigation. “The weapon, .303 rifle, of offence has been seized,” the official said.
Locals, including the brother of the victim, said they suspected it to be a case of suicide.
Meanwhile, the J&K Police along with the security forces, arrested two terrorist associates of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, and recovered arms and ammunition.
The arrested persons were identified as Farooq Ahmad Parra from Baramulla’s Pattan and Saima Bashir from Sopore’s Chinkipora.
“On their disclosure, arms and ammunition, including a pistol, two pistol magazines, five pistol rounds and improvised explosive devices (approximately 2 kg) along with remote control and other incriminating materials have been recovered,” the police said.
The arrested duo revealed that they were working as terrorist associates with active LeT militant Abid Qayoom Lone.
Well-founded charges
Meanwhile, the Court of Special Judge Designate under the NIA Act, Srinagar, on Tuesday framed charges against four accused, including the Pakistan-based terrorist Ali Kashif Jan.
The accused were identified as Umar Mushtaq Khan from Pulwama, Murtaza Rashid Dar from Pulwama, Sajjad Ahmad Dar from Anantnag and Ali Kashif Jan alias Jan Ali Kashif from village Doisrah, Sharsadda, Khyber Pakhtunwa, Pakistan, of the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Their role was established in a case registered by the State Investigation Agency, Kashmir, on September, 1, 2022 “in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy of creating new modules of ground workers for aiding, abetting, assisting, harbouring and providing logistic support to terrorists and secessionist organisations.
“These modules were operating in secrecy with adversaries and operated independently. The modules were in constant touch with handlers and members of terrorist organisations across the border through encrypted internet messaging platforms, besides other software applications,” the SIA statement said.
Mr. Kashif through social media and other secret messaging apps, was aiming “to promote terrorist activities, besides procuring and supplying arms and ammunition among the terrorists for carrying out terrorist activities and waging war against the Union of India”.
The SIA presented the chargesheet against all the four accused persons before the Designate Court of Special Judge on March 4. 2023. On Tuesday, after hearing the arguments from the public prosecutor as well as the defence counsel, the court found accusations against all the named persons well-founded and accordingly, framed charges against them.
Published - April 11, 2023 07:45 am IST
