SRINAGAR – A fortnight after having been handed over the case, the National Investigation Agency on Wednesday raided seven places in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district in connection with a probe into an encounter along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway last month that left three JeM militants killed, officials said here.
The officials said the raids were conducted at the residence of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander Zahid Ahmad Wani at Karimabad and Sameer Ahmad Dar, a driver by profession and was arrested during Nagrota encounter on January 31.
Dar, cousin of suicide bomber Adil Dar who killed 40 CRPF personnel in a deadly attack last year in Pulwama, was among the five arrested after the incident.
The houses of three alleged overground workers (OGWs) who were arrested from Pulwama in connection with the January 31 encounter — Suhail Javed Lone, Zahoor Ahmad Khan and Shoiab Manzoor — were also searched.
Lone, a Jammu student, was the second point of contact for the JeM militants in case they failed to meet Sameer Ahmad Dar, who was driving them to the Kashmir Valley in a truck.
The militants were killed in a fierce gunbattle with police at the Ban Toll Plaza on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on January 31.
A police constable was also injured in the incident.
Law & Order Situation In J&K Satisfactory: DGP
Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Wednesday said the law-and-order situation in Jammu and Kashmir was “good and satisfactory”, adding that the people in the two regions were cooperating with the security agencies.
Singh said Kishtwar in Jammu region would be free of militancy again as only a “couple of militants” were active in the district.
“We are fully alert and are dealing with law-and-order situation on a day-to-day basis for a very long time. I am happy to announce that the people in both the regions of Jammu and Kashmir are cooperating with us to maintain peace,” Singh told reporters in Kishtwar.
“No incident of law-and-order situation happened anywhere in the Union territory, which is good and satisfactory,” the police chief said when asked about the violence in Delhi and the measures taken by administration in maintaining peace.
Referring to Kishtwar district, which was rocked by several militancy-related incidents since November 2018, the DGP said: “The situation in the district used to be tense and the militant activities were making us upset.”
“It has improved a lot and the situation in the district is better now,” he said, pointing out to the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Osama and his two associates.
The officer exuded confidence that the situation would improve and the district would be made militancy-free again.
“There are only a couple of active militants left in the district. We have given them the offer of both types (either surrender or get neutralised),” Singh added.
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