Lashkar duo arrested for J&K grenade attacks

SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were arrested a day after six civilians were injured in one of the twin grenade attacks that rocked north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Monday. Meanwhile, security forces since Monday also busted three terrorist hideouts across J&K — two along the LoC in Baramulla’s Rampur sector and another in Poonch district — and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition including AK-47 rifles and UBGL grenades.
The Lashkar ultras arrested on Tuesday were identified as Baramulla residents Fayaz Ahmad Kumar — who has 37 FIRs registered against his name and has been detained seven times under the Public Safety Act — and Aqib Shafi Bhat who is wanted in three cases, Baramulla SSP Abdul Qayoom said. “The two were arrested during night time raids late Monday. They were tasked with reviving terrorism in Baramulla town by their Pakistan-based mentors,” Qayoom said, adding that their arrest was a “big success” in maintaining peace in the district.
On Monday morning, six people were injured in Azadgunj area when a hand grenade lobbed by terrorists at a vehicle carrying security personnel landed in a marketplace across the road and exploded on shoppers. Later that evening, suspected terrorists hurled grenades and fired a few rounds at a police post adjoining a bus stand in Sopore, but none was killed or injured in the attack.
On August 30 (Sunday), suspicious movement was detected along the LoC in Rampur sector, defence spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia said. The terrorists had crossed into the Indian side of Kashmir and were moving from a village close to the border. “Their move was kept under constant surveillance,” he added.
Around 5am on Monday, a search was launched. “After an extensive search for around seven hours, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from two well-concealed locations in two hideouts in Rampur sector, which include five AK-series rifles along with six magazines and two sealed boxes of 1,254 rounds of AK ammunition, six pistols with nine magazines and six rounds, 21 grenades, two UBGL grenades and two Kenwood radio sets,” the spokesperson said.
In a similar anti-terror operation on Tuesday morning, a joint team of Army, BSF and J&K Police busted a terrorist hideout in Poonch’s Khenatar village and seized a stash of arms and ammunition. “The team recovered two Chinese pistols with five pistol magazines, 50 rounds of ammunition, five AK magazines, 270 AK rounds, two wireless sets, four Chinese grenades, a pair of Japanese binoculars and a bag,” Poonch SSP Ramesh Angral said, adding that this was the fifth terrorist hideout busted in the frontier district since April 22.
Col Kalia said the suspected modus operandi of terrorists is to drop “war-like stores in caches” near the LoC following which overground workers or terrorists pick up the same for further transportation to the hinterlands for terror activities. “Similar attempts were made on July 22 when inputs were received regarding a possible weapon drop along the LoC in Rampur ahead of the anti-infiltration fence. During a subsequent search operation, one AKS-74U with magazines, five pistols (one with Chinese markings) and magazines, 24 grenades and other war-like stores were recovered,” he said.