Jammu & Kashmir police arrests two in Sunjwan terror attack case

Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday arrested two persons who allegedly provided logistic support to Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, who attacked a CISF bus near Sunjwan military installation on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday “while two more were on the run.”

“After a through investigations and analyzing the CCTV footages, it was concluded that the two Jaish fidayeen (suicide) terrorists were picked up by Bilal Ahmed Wagay a resident of Kokernag (Anantnag in Kashmir) from Samba in a truck laden with vegetables,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jammu, Mukesh Singh said while addressing a hurriedly called presser.

He said the police was also looking for Bilal’s brother Asif, who is also involved in the crime. “Investigations have revealed that one Shafiq Ahmed and Asif were working in a walnut factory in Narwal, close to Sujwan and were in touch with a Jaish commander through Telegram app. The Jaish commander has been identified as having a code name Veer,” Singh said

The ADGP added that role of another youth Iqbal from Dhamhal Hanjipora in south Kashmir’s Kulgam has also come to fore. “We have arrested Shafiq and Iqbal while Bilal and Asif are on the run,” he said.

The ADGP said that Bilal had reached Jammu on April 20 and helped the fidayeen to travel from Samba to Sunjwan. “All these Kashmir youth were in touch with a JeM commander across the border under the code name Veer and the Telegram group run by them was named as Pagal Jamaat (mad party),” Singh said.

He revealed that after questioning Shafiq, it has come to the fore that the two slain Jaish militants were not able to speak Urdu, Hindi or English but only Pashto. “This suggests that the fidayeen were either from Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa belt or Afghanistan,” he said.

He said the JeM commander Veer had informed Bilal and Shafiq that they have to receive two fidayeen in Jammu. “The slain fidayeen were tasked to carry out a massive strike in Jammu which was foiled by alert forces. More arrests are expected to be made in the case," he added.

A bus carrying 15 CISF personnel came under attack at 4:25 am on Friday near an Army camp in Sunjwan. Police said the terrorists fired at the bus and lobbed grenades, killing Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) S P Patil and injuring other occupants of the bus.

The attack took place just two days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Samba district where he is scheduled to address panchayats across the country on ‘Panchayati Raj Diwas.’

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