Jammu: 2 Kashmir residents were taken into custody in connection with the Friday’s Sunjwan encounter in which 2 suicide bombers of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were killed when they were on a “big terror mission” aimed at sabotaging PM Narendra Modi’s April 24th visit to Jammu, police said on Saturday. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for Jammu Mukesh Singh said they were looking for two more conspirators involved in the planning and transportation of the terrorists from Sapwal near the International Border in Samba district to Jammu.
“During the investigation, police on the basis of technical analysis succeeded in effecting the arrest of Shafiq Ahmed Sheikh of Mir Mohalla village in south Kashmir’s Tral, who had facilitated the stay of terrorists in Jalalabad area of Jammu,” Singh said. On the disclosure of Shafiq, he said, one more person, Mohammad Iqbal Rather of Malwan village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam, in whose residence at Jalalabad the terrorists had taken shelter, was also detained.
The ADGP said on the basis of technical analysis and other evidence, Singh said Shafiq’s brother Asif had created an ID on Telegram (social media app) by the name of “Pagal jamaat” through which the former contacted the Pakistan-based Jaish commander codenamed “Veer” who asked him to “take home some suicide attackers brought by someone from Jammu”, he said.
Following directions, Bilal had set out from Pulwama on the morning of April 20th and reached Jammu the same evening and stayed at Transport Nagar there, the ADGP said. Around midnight, he left for Sapwal in Samba district where he picked up both the terrorists in a truck and moved towards Jammu’s Jallalabad area. “When Shafiq was made to hear Pashto, he immediately recognised the language of the terrorists which indicate that they were either from an area of Pakistan border near Afghanistan or Afghanistan itself,” he said.
The plan was to take them to the nearest security location and inflict maximum causalities on the security forces, to sabotage the PM’s April 24th visit to Palli village in Samba district, the ADGP said.