NIA attaches property of Pakistan-based Al-Umar chief in Srinagar

In a major offensive against militant commanders operating from Pakistan soil, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday attached Srinagar-based residence of Al-Umar Chief Mushtaq Zargar alias Latram, who was swapped for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight at Kandahar in1999.

Latram, the founder and chief commander of Al-Umar Mujahideen was released along with Masood Azhar, the Bahawalpur based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and UK born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, most infamous for the 2002 beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Qaeda in exchange of over 170 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814 (IC 814) at Kandahar in1999.

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Latram was also involved in the kidnapping of former union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter, Rubaiya Sayeed, sister of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, in December 1989.

A spokesperson of the NIA said Zargar’s two marlas house (Khasra No. 182) at Ganai Mohalla, Jamia Masjid, Nowhatta, Srinagar, has been attached under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He is a ‘Designated Individual Terrorist’ and has been operating from Pakistan ever since his release and has been funding terror activities in the valley.

He was earlier associated with Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front and was responsible for several terror attacks in the Union Territory, the spokesperson said. He has also been involved in other heinous crimes, including murders, and has a close association with other terror outfits such as Al-Qaeda and JeM.

Zargar, a coppersmith by profession, grew up in the old city of Srinagar and crossed over to Pakistan to get arms training in 1988. In 1990, he drifted from the JKLF and founded the Al-Umar Mujahideen, which favours Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan.

He was arrested on 15 May 1992 and later released in 1999, along with Masood Azhar and Sheikh Omar in Khandhar, Afghanistan. Sources said after his release in 1999, Zargar is believed to have renewed the activity of Al-Umar in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

He is suspected to be the man behind the June 2019 terror attack in Kashmir’s Anantnag, in which five CRPF personnel were killed and three others were injured after their patrolling party was attacked with grenades.