‘Shoot my brother for having terror link’
Praveen Sharma, the elder brother of Sandeep alias Adil who was arrested by the J&K police for having links with militant outfit LeT, said on Monday the police should shoot Sandeep as he had helped terrorists.
“We were not aware that he had links with LeT. We are ashamed at his act,” Praveen said.
“He (Sandeep) has done a shameful act. Whatever punishment the government gives to him, our family will not protest. Even if the government decides to shoot him we will support it,” he told media persons. Praveen is a taxi driver in Haridwar.
Sources said Praveen told the police that about six months ago, a police officer from Anantnag had informed him about the arrest of Sandeep in some case but he did not go there and he was not in touch with Sandeep for the last three years.
Sources said Sandeep had left studies after passing high school from Janata Inter College in his native village Mustafabad.
He studied at Malviya Vidya Mandir till class 8. He worked in a private company for some time and later started driving autorickshaw.
Five years ago, Sandeep and his cousin went to Delhi in search of a job and came in contact with a contractor who sent him to J& K.
The arrest of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Sandeep Sharma alias Adil alias Iliyas, a native of Muzaffarnagar, by Jammu and Kashmir Police has put the focus on the communally sensitive west UP region.
A team of UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) rushed to Muzaffarnagar to grill the family members, friends and associates of Sharma. Inspector general of police, ATS, Asim Arun said, “Teams have been sent to Muzaffaranagar to interrogate family members of Sharma, another team has been dispatched to Jammu and Kashmir to quiz Sharma. The Jammu and Kashmir police are in regular contact with UP police and have shared the information collected from the LeT operative.”
The ATS and UP police have nabbed the modules of various terror groups in west UP earlier. Still, Sharma’s arrest has alarmed the security agencies.
“Sharma had converted to Islam. There was no previous instance of a Hindu-origin person joining a terror group operating from Pakistan. Intelligence agencies are scanning the contacts of Sharma to find out if he has lured local youths to join the LeT,” said a police officer.
A preliminary probe by ATS showed that Sharma had left Muzaffarnagar nine years ago and he rarely contacted his family members. He was a welder and had no criminal record at the local police station. He shifted to Delhi with a local friend. Later, a labour contractor sent him to Jammu to work with an agency for installation of electricity towers. There, he came into contact with the LeT militants who used him in terror activities and crime.
Arun said Sharma was a specialist in uprooting ATMs and looting cash. It showed that militant groups were using criminals to carry out bank loot to fund their activities in Jammu and Kashmir, he said. Sharma was also involved in an attack on army and police convoys in the Kashmir Valley, he said.
On April 24, the ATS had arrested terror operative Mufti alias Faizan from Bijnor district in west UP. He was planning to carry out attacks on religious and public spots.
In 2015, security agencies had nabbed Mohammad Asif and Zafar Masood, al-Qaeda operatives, in Sambhal district. Security agencies found that duo held secret meetings in west UP and tried to motivate the local youths to join al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) network.