Author: Sanjeev Pargal
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: August 11, 2000
For the first time, over
a decade long period of militancy, the Jammu police have arrested a Hindu
youth who is a dreaded Pakistan Afghanistan militant. Four of his associates,
including two Hindus were also arrested. They were sent to Jammu by Major
Irfan of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to disrupt the city on Independence
Day
A huge quantity of arms
and ammunition, two very powerful explosive devices including a milk container
LED and a tiffin bomb (Idled with RDX) were recovered during the arrests.
"The tiffin bombs had
been timed to blast at 10 am on August 15," said Inspector General of Police,
Jammu Zone, R V Raju at a press conference yesterday morning. The arrested
militant, who had joined Hizbul Mujahideen sometime back after his differences
with Harkat-ul Jehad Islami (HUJI) outfit, has been identified as Bharat
Kumar alias Bharat Singh alias Bharat Malhotra alias Munna (code name Tariq),
a resident of Jammu City's outskirts. His four associates include Harjit
Singh alias Jeeta of Jammu, Sodagar Singh of RS Pura, Sammi-ul-Rehman alias
Sammi and Sheikh Mukhtiar, both residents of Jammu.
"This is for the first
time that a hardcore militant of the minority community has been arrested
by the police", Raju said. Some more contacts of Munna are still at large
and Jammu Police have launched a manhunt to nab them,
The recovery included
a 2.7 kg RDX filled IED fitted in a tiffin box, another 4 kg IED filled
in a domestic steel milk container, three special HG-84 hand grenades,
four Chinese pistols with Star Mark, 65 magazines and one round, one bayonet,
two time pencil devices, four detonators, one very powerful and sophisticated
wireless set (Kenwood with FM transmitter) and one haversack.
Major Mohan Gandotra
of the army, whose team defused both the milk container and tiffin box
IEDs, said that the milk container IED was so fabricated that it couldn't
be detected even by very sensitive sniffer dogs.
Specially designed shrapnels
had been filled in the IED for the first time as earlier the ISI filled
the IEDs with nut volts. He said that this indicated that ISI had started
manufacturing IEDs on a very large scale. Both the IEDs were capable of
causing huge devastation, he added.
Munna, who was produced
before newsmen, disclosed that he had been directed by ISI Major Keyani
and Irfan to plant IEDs either at the venue of the Independence Day parade
or at crowded places in Jammu City on the same day.
According to the police
Munna was paid Rs 10,000 by the ISI of which he spent Rs 7400 during his
stay in Jammu and a brief trip to New Delhi. He had been promised a building
and a car in both India as well as Pakistan if he succeeded in his mission'.
