Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir Police today arrested three terrorists from Muslim Jaanbaz Force– an offshoot of LeT– who opened fire at Krishna Dhaba near UN office in Sonawar area of Srinagar on Wednesday, in which one person was injured.
The J&K police worked out the terrorist attack within 48 hours.
The arrested trio has been identified as Suhail Ahamad Mir, resident of Dangerpora in Nowgam, Owais Manzoor Sofi, resident of Dangarpora (occupation butcher) and Vilayat Aziz Mir, resident of Hanipora Wampora in Pulwama.
The J&K Police, in a statement, said that Owais Manzoor is a history-sheeter and was previously involved in several cases.
“On February 17 (Wednesday), when the European delegation was on a day visit, Pak based terrorist organisation LeT (which through its new modus operandi of floating new terror organisation and revival of some old names) in its cowardly attempt to disrupt the ongoing peaceful atmosphere in valley choose a soft target, a famous food outlet Krishna Dhaba and attacked its inmates to terrorise the non locals living in valley and to disrupt the tourist activity which has seen an upsurge from past two months as the food outlet is very famous and popular among the tourists visiting the valley,” read the police statement.
Immediately after the attack, Srinagar police, with the help of CCTV footage and Technical assistance started working on certain leads and after hectic efforts on technical and human intelligence, zeroed on certain clues and tied up with district police Pulwama and district Police Anantnag, it said.
On the basis of intelligence, many suspected spots were raided by the joint team of Srinagar and Pulwama police which led to arrest of Vilayat Aziz Mir son of Abdul Aziz Mir resident of Hanipora Wampora Pulwama, read the police statement.
Similarly, by another joint team of Srinagar and Anantnag police various suspected spots were raided in Anantnag district, which led to the arrest of Suhail Ahmad Mir son of Fateh Mohd Mir and Owais Manzoor Sofi son of Manzoor Ahmad Sofi, both residents of Dangerpora.
During further course of investigation, it was learnt that Vilayat was in contact with one Gazi, an active terrorist and trained him locally a month before. He performed the recce of Dalgate Durganag area along with other terrorist associates ten days prior to attack, police said.
On Wednesday, the trio on the bike of Suhail Ahmed Mir, resident of Dangerpora, at around 7:15 pm reached Krishna Dhaba and fired indiscriminately on the staff, critically injuring Aakash Mehra, S/O Ramesh Kumar Mehra.
“The Pak based terrorist organisation have adopted new strategies by recruiting local youths who are in their teens and allowing them to mix up with the family friends and live normally and training them for a day or so. They are given task by their masters and in case they get caught a public opinion be generated that they were not active militants and joined only on the day of incident,” police said.
The arrest of involved trio and recovery of weapon of crime (pistol) and grenade along with other incriminating material including bike used by terrorists within hours of attack, is a big success for Jammu and Kashmir police, it said.
The trio during interrogation have also confessed their involvement in the crime, police said adding that a case has already been registered in this regard under relevant sections of law and further investigation is on.
-ARK
