SIM card with slain militant traced

A 32-year-old man, reportedly working as an informer for the J&K Police, was arrested from Delhi on charges of procuring and distributing a SIM card that was found from a slain terrorist, report Vijaita Singh & Surbek Biswas.

A 32-year-old man, reportedly working as an informer for the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police, was arrested from Delhi on charges of procuring and distributing a SIM card that was found from a slain terrorist. Another person, Tousif Rehman, was also arrested in this regard from Howrah railway station in Kolkata.

HT Image

A Special Task Force (STF) team of the Kolkata Police arrested Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh from Jammu and Kashmir House in Delhi. Sheikh, a resident of Rehanbari in Kashmir, was staying in Room Number 405 of J&K House since December 2. Sources said he had checked in the state guesthouse along with Sub Inspector Latif Ahmed, posted with J&K police.

According to police, the SIM cards used by the terrorists were traced to Sheikh in Srinagar and he, in turn, had procured them from Rehman, who bought the cards in Kolkata. “It is not known how these cards reached the terrorists. We are interrogating Sheikh,” said Jawed Shamim, DCP (Detective), Kolkata Police.

He said Rehman had purchased the SIM card, along with 12 others, with a voter identity card that belonged to his dead uncle.

Nine more were procured at a higher price without any documents. Rehman also purchased 10 additional SIM cards with fake documents. All the SIM cards were pre-activated.

According to police, Sheikh is married to Rehman’s sister and was living in Kolkata till about two years ago.