Hot pursuit

He was welcomed into the terror group’s ranks: no one else had any real knowledge of fighting, and, with no contacts in its central leadership, Burhan Wani himself was initially seen as a potential traitor by the Hizb leadership in Pakistan.

The hunt for Sheikh

From Sartaj Sheikh’s police dossier, it’s clear his infiltration of the Hizb caused it significant damage. The police were able to closely monitor Muhammad Iqbal Bhat, despatched by the Hizb command through Kathmandu in 2012 to arm and train their new south Kashmir networks. They disrupted the work of Bhat’s successor, Sajjad Ahmad Dar, sent two years later. Fearing betrayal, Burhan Wani himself remained holed up in his Tral heartland, unable to organise units elsewhere.

Because of spies like Sartaj Sheikh, Burhan Wani’s social media charm wasn’t reviving the Kashmir insurgency: the recruitment of young Kashmiris showed an uptick from 2014 — but violent incidents declined, as did attacks on and fatalities of security forces.

Indecember2014,though,sartajsheikh disappeared from his home, and broke all contact with the SOG. No one knows exactly why. “He’d been promised a new beginning somewhere else, and instead found himself in constant danger, with no way out. That’s how it is in this game. Perhaps, he cracked. Perhaps, he just got sick of betraying people and watching them die,” said an officer associated with the case.

Findingsartajsheikhbecamethetoppriority for the SOG in south Kashmir because he had the ability to compromise their counter-terrorism operations significantly. The SOG mounted multiple raids targeting Sartajsheikhinthefirsthalfof2015—atleast twodirectedatthehomeofhismaternaluncles in Bamdoora, Farooq Ahmad Wani and Nasir Ahmad Wani. They came up blank.

Trap begins to close

In May, however, the trap finally began to close — aided by an unexpected gift delivered to the SOG. Even as Sartaj Sheikh had drifted into the Hizb’s embrace, a key figure in Burhan Wani’s circle was headed out. That month, Tariq Ahmad Pandit, walked out of the orchards near Karimabad in Pulwama, armed with a pistol, six rounds andtwogrenades.policerecordsshowtariq Pandit was arrested but sources said that he, in fact, had surrendered. “He’d given up the fight,” said an official.

The 1996-born son of a local butcher in Pulwama’s Neva, Tariq Pandit had finished high school and won a place with Himayat, acentralgovernmentskillstrainingscheme that sent him to work at a coffee shop in Hyderabad. He returned after the 2014 floods,though,onlytodiscoverthereweren’t many prospects for coffee shops in rural Kashmir — and ended up driving a truck.

In March, 2015, Tariq Pandit joined the Hizb, helping police constable Nasir Pandit steal rifles from the home of a PDP minister