3 arrested for 'helping' Pak terrorist

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested three persons for allegedly helping Mohammed Naved, the Pakistani terrorist who was captured after he attacked a BSF convoy near Udhampur on Wednesday.

Sources told Deccan Herald that Naved told his interrogators that he stayed with a family in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district before travelling to Udhampur to carry out the terror attack in which two BSF personnel and one militant were killed.

“The three men were arrested from their residence in Awanpora village of Pulwama. Their photographs have been sent for identification to National Investigation Agency (NIA) base in Srinagar where Naved is being held,” sources revealed.

The arrested, including two brothers who hail from Awantipora in Pulwama, have been identified Javid Ahmed Wani and Fayaz Ahmed, sons of Muhammad Shaban and Javid Ahmed Parray from Charsoo, Pulwama. “They are likely to be paraded before the captured militant Naved on Sunday,” they said.

A local news agency quoting the father of Javid and Fayaz said that his both sons were innocent.

“My sons are not affiliated with any militant organisation and I fail to understand why they have been arrested,” a news agency quoted him as saying, adding that his sons were picked up during a nocturnal raid.

However, police were tight-lipped over the issue and didn’t reveal the identity of the arrested persons. Sources said several other persons have also been detained.
A senior police officer told on condition of anonymity that it was difficult to say whether the detained trio was involved in the terror attack.

“We cannot say whether they are involved or not as the truck number given by the arrested militant, who used it to travel to Udhampur proved wrong,” he said, adding that it was registration number of a scooter.

“Naved is being taken to all the places he mentioned during interrogation and we are sure that in a day or two, the NIA will be able to trace the other accused in the attack,” he added.

Earlier, Naved, a member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, was brought to the Valley from the Jammu region by road, sources said. “The NIA team had reached here on Friday from Delhi.

Naved was brought here on Saturday morning to establish the route he used to reach Udhampur and to identify accomplices who facilitated his passage to Udhampur,” they said and added Naved has been kept at an undisclosed location and is likely to be shifted to Delhi on Monday.

The NIA took over investigations a day after the terror attack in Udhampur after the Centre issued notification asking the central probe agency to get evidences which could be presented to Pakistan. Naved has claimed that he hails from Faislabad, Pakistan.