Author: Sanjay Singh/ New Delhi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 30, 2003
The surrender of arms by nine policemen
deployed at Nadimarg police post on the fateful night when 24 Kashmiri
Pandits were massacred by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) was a ploy to keep
them away from their complicity in the crime, investigations revealed.
The role of cops came to light
after the arrest of two persons who said, police co-operation implied that
they would not resist the massacre.
Mastermind Abu Mahaz, a Pakistani
commander of LeT in Pulwama, had planned the massacre to strike terror
among the 8,000 members of minority community spread in 300 locations in
the Valley. The conspiracy was hatched a week before the incident at Taripura
where Hijbul leaders were called for providing logistical support. Divisional
commander Arif Khan was part of the joint operation.
Timing and target were important
factors in the operation aimed at disrupting Government plans of Pandit
rehab.
A Home Ministry official said an
important element to the conspiracy was to seek the co-operation of the
local police without putting them in the dock. Local sympathizers and overground
militant supporters in neighbouring Nadigram came in handy. The militants
spent a week gathering information about the number of Kashmiri Pandits
living there.