3 Hizb militants with links to 4 attacks held

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday arrested three Hizbul Mujahideen militants in connection with four terror incidents, including the killings of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anil Parihar, his brother Ajeet Parihar and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Chandrakant Sharma in Kishtwar district in the past 10 months.

Addressing media persons in Jammu, inspector general of police (Jammu region) Mukesh Singh said, “In the past 10 months, four terror incidents had taken place in Kishtwar district that included the killings of Parihar brothers, RSS leader Chandrakant Sharma and his PSO, the snatching of gun of deputy commissioner’s PSO and that of PDP leader’s PSO”.

The militants have been identified as Nisar Ahmed Sheikh, Nishad Ahmed and Azad Hussain, all Kishtwar residents. Efforts are on to nab other active terrorists of the outfit, which hatched the conspiracy in 2016-17 to revive militancy in the Chenab valley, said Singh, adding they will be brought to book very soon.

The arrested terrorists were involved in the four terror strikes between November last year and

September this year, said Singh.

The IGP said the brain behind the conspiracy was Jehangir Saroori.

“Jehangir connived with Nisar Ahmed Sheikh, Osama and other militants to revive Hizbul Mujahideen in Chenab valley and under this conspiracy, they first executed the killings of BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet Parihar.”

The IGP said that the investigations were on and more arrests were likely in the coming days.