The Sopore Police on Friday claimed to have apprehended a supporter of the hardline Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani involved in assaulting an army jawan during a Friday rally of the separatist leader. Five other mobsters allegedly involved in the act were also arrested.
On November, 11, the army's military intelligence personnel was thrashed by a mob when he was shooting the rally of Geelani at north Kashmir's Sopore area, 55 km away from Srinagar. A pistol was also snatched from the jawan by the mob.The Hurriyat alleged the army of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate him and filed an FIR with Sopore police against the army.
"As a part of the investigation, Geelani and his supporters were asked to hand over the snatched pistol (from the personnel). But Geelani failed to do so and also was reluctant to hand over his protectors to police," said a police spokesman.
The police said it identified six people during the investigation. All the six were part of Geelani’s public gathering and assaulted the jawan were arrested.
"At the instance of one arrested person, a service pistol of the the personnel was recovered from one Mudasir Ahmad Dar, son of Gulzar Ahmad Dar, a resident of Unto Hamam Sopore," said the police spokesman.
{{/usCountry}}"At the instance of one arrested person, a service pistol of the the personnel was recovered from one Mudasir Ahmad Dar, son of Gulzar Ahmad Dar, a resident of Unto Hamam Sopore," said the police spokesman.
{{/usCountry}}The police claimed that Dar was about to handover the weapon to the militants of the Lashkar-E- Tayyeba.
All the assailants, the police claimed, were acting as foot soldiers for Geelani. "At the time of moving an application for lodging an FIR, Geelani was told to hand over snatched pistol, mandated by law. This makes it amply clear that he takes law into his hands and has scant regard for law of the land," said the police spokesman.