Missing Kashmir constable suspected to have joined LeT
SRINAGAR : A Jammu and Kashmir police constable is suspected to have joined the militant Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in what could be the third such switch by a security personnel in the Valley this year.
Police ordered a probe after the constable, Isfaq Ahmad Dar, last week announced on social media that he has joined the LeT, a Pakistan-based militant outfit blamed for several terror attacks in India.
A photograph of Dar holding an AK-47 assault rifle was also widely circulated on social media and messaging apps in the Valley over the past few days.
“There are reports we are trying to confirm. The matter is being investigated,” state police chief SP Vaid told HT on Saturday. Many in Dar’s family, including his brother, are policemen, sources said.
More than 1,500 police personnel have been killed in the Valley since insurgency broke out in 1989. In June, a deputy SP – Mohammed Ayub Pandith – was lynched by a mob outside Srinagar’s main mosque.
In recent months, several policemen have been killed or attacked and their homes ransacked by suspected militants, seen as warnings to local police personnel to stop participating in counter-insurgency operations.
Six policemen including an officer were also killed in a militant ambush earlier this year.
Sources said Dar was shifted from Kargil to Kathua in July after adverse reports about his alleged “militant sympathies”.
“He was under police radar but we can’t arrest a person unless he does something,” a senior police officer said.
Dar, from a village in Shopian, had left his home to report back to duty last week. When he did not reach Kathua, family lodged a missing person report. Soon after, the photograph of Dar surfaced on social media.
In May , a constable from Shopian, Syed Naveed Mushtaq, decamped with four service rifles and joined the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Two months later, Zahoor Ahmad Thokar — who was with the 173 Territorial Army Engineering regiment — deserted his unit and joined militant ranks.