Seven Al-Badr militants and over-ground workers, planning to carry out “major attacks in north”, were arrested in north Kashmir on Saturday.
The police said these seven persons were arrested during an anti-militancy operation launched after “specific inputs that the Al-Badr was planning to carry out attacks on the police and security forces at several places in Sopore”. The seven youth, including four hybrid terrorists and three terror associates, were arrested during a joint cordon and search in Rawoocha in Rafiabad.
“First three arrests were made. On their sustainable interrogation, others arrests followed,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) North Kashmir Udaya Bhaskar said. During the preliminary questioning, the arrestees confessed that they were in “close contact with the terror handlers from last two years,” the police said.
“They disclosed that Pakistan-based terror handlers, Yousuf Balousi, a Pakistani and Khursheed, Anantnag, at present in Pakistan, directed them to revive the terror folds in Rafiabad, Sopore by recruiting youth into terror folds of the Al-Badr outfit, provide logistic support to active terrorists, procurement and arranging weapons for new recruits etc.,” Mr. Bhaskar said.
The police said incriminating materials, huge cache of arms and ammunition, and cash were recovered from their possession. “Apart from warlike stores, cash of three lakh and eighty thousand has been recovered from their possession,” the DIG said. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has condemned the killing of a police officer in a militant attack in Bandipora on Friday afternoon.
