JeM militant from Pakistan who attacked army camp held in J-K: Cops

Security forces have arrested a Pakistani militant who was allegedly involved in an attack on an army camp near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir three months ago, a senior police official told HT.

Mohammad Sadiq Gujjar, 17, was arrested on Wednesday night after a two-day search operation, Garib Das, the deputy inspector general of north Kashmir, said.

“He was arrested from Kanishpora in Baramulla,” Das said, adding the suspected Jasih-e-Mohammed militant confirmed his role in the attack on a Gorkha Rifles’ camp last year.

Gujjar, alias Sadiq Mavia, is a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, police said. He is from a well-to-do farmers’ family.

Das said Gujjar was part of JeM’s suicide squad that was formed after the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Security forces in J-K are on alert in the aftermath of the Pathankot air base assault — allegedly carried out by JeM — and the Pampore strike in the first two months of 2016.

Read: 3 ‘foreign militants’ killed in Pampore encounter, combing ops on

Gujjar and three of his associates — Hussain, Malik and Rizwan — allegedly attacked the camp in Tangdhar town in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on November 25, 2015.

Gujjar told interrogators that the group of four started their journey from Athmuqam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on November 10, sources said.

Hussain, Malik and Rizwan were gunned down by forces, while a civilian died in the ambush.

Gujjar admitted to setting afire an oil depot inside the Tangdhar camp and destroying several vehicles, police said.

He hid in a forest after the attack and reached Tanghdar in a taxi. He later travelled to Baramulla with the help of a few local residents.

Police said the operation to catch hold of Gujjar was launched after tip-offs on the presence of a suspected JeM militant in Baramulla.

Police said five local residents were arrested in the operation.

There have been several instances of Pakistani militants being captured in India in recent years; the most high-profile being the case of Ajmal Kasab, who was caught during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Last year, security forces had captured two Pakistani militants in J-K.

“We busted a module earlier this month and got a lead that a Jaish militant is on the run.

“He (Gujjar) is a well-trained fidayeen who had infiltrated a few days before the attack,” Das said.

Police said Gujjar was in the process of creating a base in Baramulla.

Read more: Pak militants attacked Pathankot airbase, Jaish operative tells HT

First Published: Feb 25, 2016 18:03 IST