Pakistan-trained LeT militant surrenders in native north Kashmir

A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant surrendered in his native north Kashmir village to where he returned from Pakistan after arms training this year, police said on Friday.

A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant surrendered in his native north Kashmir village to where he returned from Pakistan after arms training this year, police said on Friday.

An army soldier stands guard near a check post outside Badami Bagh cantonment of the Army in Srinagar. (Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times)

Umar Khaliq Mir alias Sameer dropped his arms and appeared before a police team that cornered him in a house not far from the 24-year-old’s residence in Baramulla district on Thursday evening, superintendent of police Harmeet Singh said.

Mir, who lives in Tujjar area off Sopore town, had crossed the Line of Control over to Pakistan this May to get arms training, according to the police.

There was no case against him, the Sopore SSP said, prompting the police to give the militant a chance to surrender. “We sent him a message through the house-owner, asking him to come out of hiding,” he added. The mission failed.

Subsequently, the SSP called him on phone and said there will be no gunfight if he laid his arms inside and came out.

After this, the militant wanted his father, who lives in the same village, to be called. “We brought the father and sent him in. Mir then came out with his father,” Singh said.

Not every time do such efforts succeed for the police. There have been several instances where militants refused to surrender despite police suggesting it.

The SSP said it was with a group of foreign militants that Mir came back from Pakistan. “We are interrogating him to get to his fellow militants,” he added.

The officer requested all local militants to surrender. “We will welcome them,” he said.

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