Author: Bhavna Vij-Aurora
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 11, 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=50794
Introduction: Not just foreign,
recent crackdown reveals local support - doctoral student provided logistics,
policeman ferried suicide bombers
An MBA from a high-profile family
in Srinagar, a state police constable, an electrician deputed to the Chief
Minister's residence, a minister's driver - they were all allegedly part
of the Lashkar-e-Toiba "module" busted by the Jammu and Kashmir police
last week.
The police had killed two Pakistani
operatives of the module and arrested 18 - unfolding local support to militants.
The involvement of educated youths from well-to- do families with the militant
network has become a major cause of concern for the intelligence agencies.
''The locals are not just operating
on the peripheries. They are intimately involved with the operations -
providing safe houses, driving militants for fidayeen attacks, supplying
weapons and undertaking reccee missions,'' said a Home Ministry official.
It was the involvement of the 26-year-old
Majid Ahmed Qadri-an MBA from Kashmir University who had also registered
for a doctorate there-which sent ripples across the state police. Resident
of posh Lal Bazaar area in Srinagar, the suave, well-read Qadri belongs
to a reputed family.
''When he was picked up by the police,
senior officials thought it was a big mistake. However, as it unravelled,
Qadri emerged as Lashkar's main contact - controlling the local tanzeem
of the outfit,'' the official said. The official said Qadri was in it not
for the money but for conviction.
Operating under the code name of
Bilal, he was facilitating all Lashkar militants, including those coming
from across the border. ''He was providing all the logistics - receiving
them, handling weapons for them and identifying hideouts. He was not an
underground operative but a chirpy, well-liked young man, who had avoided
suspicion so far,'' he added.
At Qadri's instance, the police
also recovered a sophisticated sniper rifle - fitted with a night vision
device - from the university compound.
Qadri was also writing statements
on behalf of Save Kashmir Movement of LeT and for Al-Mansooriyan. He was
reportedly using assumed names of Abu Huzaila and Tajammul. While Qadri
was facilitating the Pakistanis, Mohd Shafi - driver of minister of state
for social welfare, J-K, and a government employee - was taking them to
their hideouts. Dr Akram Bijli, an MBBS practising at the Government Medical
College in Sringar, who was also arrested, treated a Pakistani militant.
He was accused of being a sympathiser but was released on bail.
Tanvir, a constable with the state
Auxiliary Police, was working as an armourer at Bardala Armoury near Srinagar.
In his job, he was responsible for maintaining and repairing the weapons.
''He had driven the militants for
the Greenway Hotel attack while the Inter-State Council meeting was going
on in Srinagar last year. He had also accompanied the militants during
the attack on PDP activists at Haiderpora chowk before the elections. The
militants had also killed a police constable and snatched his weapon. The
weapon has been recovered from the armoury where Tanvir was working,''
he added.
The involvement of Fayaz Mir - an
electrician in the estates dept - has also rattled the intelligence agencies.
Mir was deputed to the CM's residence for electrical works. His father
Ghulam Qadri - a gardener at Nishat Gardens - was letting the militants
hide in his house. ''The fact that the LeT had managed to penetrate such
high-security areas is worrisome,'' the ministry official said.
