Hizb module busted in Handwara
STRIKING BACK Security forces nab 2 militants; Pak violates ceasefire in Poonch, Rajouri
Security forces busted a Hizbul Mujahideen module when they arrested two militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Handwara on Monday. Two supporters of the militant outfit were also nabbed in Awantipora.
The militants, both residents of Awantipora, were recruiting young men by radicalising them through social media and were also responsible for acquiring arms, police sources said.
“They were misusing web chats to hatch and execute terrorist conspiracies,’’ a Srinagarbased police spokesperson said. Police’s cyber surveillance unit had found incriminating material after going through their social media accounts. The two, identified as Mehrajudin and Obaid Shafi Malla, were in Handwara to receive ammunition and other war-like stores for their outfit in south Kashmir, the spokesperson said.
South Kashmir is the hotbed of insurgency. Of the 200 militants active in the Valley, 99 are from the southern districts, say police. Acting on information about the presence of militants, a joint team of police and army’s 21 Rashtriya Rifle set up barricades at Chogal, the spokesperson said. They tried to flee the check point but were nabbed and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them, he said.
The duo led them to two Hizbul supporters, known as overground workers, who were arrested from Awantipora.
Meanwhile, militants carried out a grenade attack on a CRPF camp in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Monday night, injuring two paramilitary personnel, police said.
Militants fired the grenade from an underbarrel grenade launcher (UBGL) on the camp of the CRPF’s 180 battalion located at the main town in Tral area of the district, a police official said.
He said the grenade explosion caused minor injuries to two CRPF personnel. Pakistan opened heavy fire on Monday morning in Nowshera and Krishna Ghati sectors of Rajouri and Poonch districts. The exchanges ceased before noon.
A soldier suffered injuries in the firing along LoC in Balnoi area of KG sector in Poonch. “A soldier identified as Havaldar Dinesh Kumar of 20 Kumaon Regiment was injured when a rocket bomb exploded at 636 TAK headquarters on the LoC in Mankote area of Balnoi,” said an Intelligence official. HTC