A Lashkar-e-Taiba module has brought four of its militants to the Pir-Panjal belt of Jammu region from Kashmir, prompting the police and security agencies to send teams to hunt them down, officials said on Tuesday.
The security forces unearthed this information while interrogating the members of the twin modules busted by the police in Rajouri recently.
“Three to four militants have been brought to Pir Panjal belt (Rajouri-Poonch districts) from Kashmir (recently by a module). They have been kept there (in hideouts)”, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jammu, Mukesh Singh said.
“We are hopeful to nab them soon,” he added.
The ADGP said according to records, only three militants are active in Jammu as most of those operating in the region have been arrested.
The forces have also identified three other top militants belonging to Jammu region but are operating from Pakistan as Qasim, Kubair and Bashir.
The two modules busted in Rajouri were instrumental in bringing the four militants to Kashmir, he said.
Run by Pakistan-based LeT commander Qasim, the two modules operated in Rajouri-Reasi belts in the Pir Panjal belt during at least the last one year. They were instrumental in five militant attacks, collection of weapons dropped from drones from Pakistan in the Line of Control area and ferrying them to Kashmir, he said.
“They were instrumental in bringing militants from Kashmir to this Pir Panjal side,” the ADGP said.
Talib alias Abu Ahmad Haider Shah of Draj-Kotranka was the commander for the Rajouri area and instrumental in almost all major militant activities and incidents in the Pir Panjal area over the past three years, he said. He was arrested along with his three associates.
Qasim was monitoring the modules headed by Talib and another commander Altaf Hussain Shah to carry out militant attacks on security forces, minority communities and prominent political figures in the area, he said.
Talib and his associates have been found to be involved in five criminal and militancy cases, the ADGP added.
After his arrest by the police and on subsequent disclosures, three under barrel grenade launcher grenades, one AK-47 rifle, four AK-47 magazines (containing 120 armour piercing rounds), two pistols, five pistol magazines, a Glock pistol silencer, 49 Chinese pistol rounds, one 2-kg IED, one 5-kg IED, five remote IEDs and four pressure mines were seized, he said.–(PTI)