Naveed Jhatt, the terrorist who came in as a teen from the cold
SRINAGAR: Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Naveed Jhatt was active in south Kashmir and involved in multiple attacks between 2013 and 2014 before his arrest, police said, hours after his brazen escape from a hospital on Tuesday.
Jhatt, 20, also known as Abu Hanzulla, killed three policemen in two different attacks, police added. He was also involved in another attack in which five policemen and two civilians were injured, police said.
Jhatt was arrested on September 19, 2014, from Sempora Bijbehara in Anantnag and lodged in Srinagar’s Rainawari jail after being charged with murder and attempt to murder.
Son of a truck driver and a resident of Multan in Pakistan’s Punjab province, he sneaked into India as a teenager along with seven other militants between October and November 2012 through Athmuqam Farkian area in Kupwara sector, according to a police report.
Police said he has several siblings. The call for “liberation of Kashmir’’ got him to training camps in Pakistan and he was pushed into Kashmir after many months of arms training, they added.
Jhatt was active in south Kashmir’s Anantnag, Pulwama and Shopian districts, according to the police. During questioning, he gave his home address as Check No 421, Boruhwala in Veheri district of Multan.
He also confessed to being trained at the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke, besides Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Jhatt told police Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi — both militant leaders wanted for the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai — were regular visitors to the Muridke seminary.
According to the police report, Jhatt and 22 other terrorists hid in Bandipora jungle between December 2012 and May 2013. Later, he was sent to Pulwama along with Ashiq Lone, another terrorist. They had mobile phones and SIM cards and were taught how to contact Pakistanbased terrorist leaders through Skype, the report said.
This band of militants shot dead a Jammu and Kashmir policeman and security forces retaliated by killing two of their members, including Lone.