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Ex-militant’s election push lands him in UP Police net
After over 30 years, UP police arrest the accused living in Budgam; he had contested elections against J&K CM Omar Abdullah
Urge to contest elections and get into politics landed a trained militant of Hizbul Mujahideen to get traced and land in UP police net on Monday, over 30 years after he had attacked the cops in Saharanpur’s Deoband with hand grenades in August 1993, said senior police officials on Tuesday.
The officials said he had contested elections from Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam assembly constituency against Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, but lost badly and secured only 1,583 votes. His security was also deposited. Earlier, he had contested other local bodies elections multiple times but failed to win, they added.
A senior ATS official said the accused, who was 21 years old when he attacked cops, was identified by one of his accomplices when his latest pictures surfaced on social media while contesting the assembly polls. “We first verified his identity by sending a team to Budgam in October and the operation was planned to arrest him secretly,” he said, and added, “The accused was arrested from his present hideout in Rakh Kahermulla locality of Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir”.
He said the Saharanpur police had declared the reward of ₹25,000 on his arrest on November 4 after a local court issued non-bailable warrant against him recently in October.
Saharanpur additional superintendent of police (ASP), rural Sagar Jain confirmed that the accused identified as Nazar Ahmad Wani alias Mushtaq Ahmad alias Nazeer Ahmad alias Mustafa Wani alias Javed Iqbal, 51, was arrested from Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir in a joint operation by Saharanpur police and a local unit of UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) on Sunday. The accused was brought to Saharanpur on Monday for further legal proceedings.
He said the accused was wanted in the case of hand grenade attack on police team near Union intersection on August 26, 1993, in which four people including two police constables Kanhaiya Lal and Arjuman Ali, and two civilans Jai Prakash Saini and Sukhbir had suffered injuries.
He said he was arrested then and got bail from a local court in October 1993 after two months on a request to take admission in a medical course. The police later discovered that both of his bail warrantees were fake, and the accused disappeared from his hideout in Deoband, Saharanpur and started living at his native place in Budgam by changing his identity.
He said Wani revealed during interrogation that he got trained by militant group Hizbul Mujahideen in Pak Occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan for around two years between 1989 and 1991.
“He shifted his base to Deoband, Saharanpur to get admission in any of the Islamic institutes but started selling caps and ‘Tasbeeh’ there and got involved in hand grenade attack in August 1993. He confessed getting involved in fierce encounter with the Army in Jammu and Kashmir, but was never arrested and finally started living a normal civilian life after a certain age,” he said.
“His election affidavit stated that he showed himself as businessman and owns property worth ₹4.3 crore including ₹11.6 lakh worth cash and property worth ₹4.18 crore,” he added.
