15 held in J&K for torching vehicles

The Jammu and Kashmir police has arrested 15 person described by it as “miscreants” who were allegedly involved in torching as many as 13 private and public transport vehicles in the Valley during the ongoing unrest. Separately, three more youth were arrested for planning to snatch service weapons from the police, it said.

The vehicles which were targeted by them in central districts of Srinagar and Budgam apparently to punish their owners for violating the separatists’ shutdown diktat included three Sumo cabs, two private cars, three motorcycle and one Scooty, two auto-rickshaws, one Chota Hathi’ load-carrier and a road-roller. Those arrested have been identified as Mohsin Nisar Bhat, Zaid alias Raju, Faizan Afzal Beigh, Fayaz Ahmed Dar, Showkat Ahmad, Zahid Ahmed Sheikh, Altaf Ahmed Dar, Ishfaq Nabi Sheikh, Junaid Ahmed, Aqib Ahmed, Shadab Hassan Gadyari, Sarfaraz Ahmed Sheikh and Rameez Ahmed Matoo. While 22 persons have been identified as those involved in the acts of arson, 15 have been arrested and 7 are still absconding, a police spokesman here said.

On Sunday evening, unknown persons set ablaze a truck at Padshahi Bagh outside the highway town of Bijbehara, resulting in the damage to the truck. The driver of the vehicle who was injured in this incident has been admitted in Bijbehara sub-district hospital and a manhunt has been launched to arrest the culprits involved in the incident, police here said.

The police also said that it had a specific input that a group of youth were being motivated by Hizb-ul-Mujahedin commander Zakir Rashid Bhat, alias Mosa, to snatch weapons from policemen deputed at the security posts set up for minority Kashmiri Pandits as a prelude to join the outfit.

“Upon this input, the police arrested one Shakir Ahmed Khan who during questioning disclosed this plan of snatching weapons. Subsequently, three persons namely Mohammad Asif Khan, Adil Ahmed Najar and Saqib Nazir Bhat were taken into custody and during questioning the trio confessed that they hatched a conspiracy to snatch weapons from minority pickets or police so that afterwards they could join militant ranks,” a statement issued by the police here on Monday said. It added that the operation was conducted jointly by the J&K police and Army’s 42 Rashtriya Rifles.