Man who had built Naikoo’s hideout gave cops vital intel

Hizb commander was being tracked for past 6 months

SRINAGAR: The hideout of Hizbul Mujahideen operational commander Riyaz Naikoo was constructed between two “false walls” in a house and police had captured the person who had built it to trace him, a police officer said on Thursday.

A mason had constructed the underground hideout close to the house of Naikoo where he was killed along with another militant on Wednesday. J&K director general of police Dilbag Singh said that they had infiltrated into his network of overground operatives and also got the man who built the hideout.

”We had been tracking him for the last six months. He had over a dozen hideouts in the south Kashmir region. This hideout was between two false walls in a house and the police had captured the person who had built it. We have intruded their overground operatives,” Singh said.

He said that it was the same hideout that was made for Zakir Musa. “Naikoo was hiding between “two false walls and had enough space to sit and rest,” the DGP said. He said that he used to stay in his village and adjacent villages. “Last time when he released an audio message, we had just reached close to his hideout but couldn’t trace him.”

Dilbag Singh said that Naikoo was tech-savvy and his killing has made Hizb headless in Kashmir. He said that Naikoo had joined militant ranks of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit in May 2012 and was a close associate of

Burhan Wani.

“After Zakir Musa’s defection from Hizbul Mujahideen to form his own outfit called ‘Ansar Gazwat ul Hind’, he took command of Hizb in Jammu and Kashmir,” Singh added.

The DGP said that he was a mastermind behind the revival of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit in Jammu and Kashmir.