Govt employees joining hands with stone pelters: Kashmir police

Muneer Ahmad Khan, deputy inspector general of police (North Kashmir), said at a media conference at Sopore that police had arrested a man named Firdous Ahmad Sheikh alias Firbal, a resident of Jalalabad (Sopore).

During questioning, he had revealed the nexus between the militants, particularly Qalimullah of the Harkatul Mujahideen (HUM) and Abdullah Uni of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hurriyat cadres, some government employees and the stone-pelters, Khan said.

“Subsequently, other arrests were made on his revelations. It was also revealed during investigations that militants were planning Fidayeen attacks on the security forces and police establishments," the officer added.

“Arms and ammunition was recovered from the residence of one Mohammad Amin Dar in (Sopore's) Badami Bagh. These included one pistol, one pistol magazine, two Thurya satellite phones, one grenade, one mobile phone, one AK-47 rifle, 10 AK-47 magazines, 32 AK rounds, one bayonet, two combat uniforms, 11 under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) shells and one UBGL," Khan said.

“One of the stone-pelters, Abdul Lateef Lone of (north Kashmir's) Kupwara, working as an Imam of the Amargarh Jama Masjid (in Sopore), was also arrested. During questioning, he has revealed that four hundred rupees were being paid to every stone-pelter. He is currently detained under PSA (Public Security Act)," the officer said.

The money which was being paid had been raised locally by the cadres of the Hurriyat headed by Syed Ali Geelani, he added.

The officer said a government employee working for the local education department, who has already been arrested, and the other working for the food supplies departments, who is absconding, worked in tandem with the guerrillas, Hurriyat cadres and the stone-pelters.