5 Jaish Terrorists Linked To Circus Worker's Killing Arrested In J&K

Five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists were arrested from Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the killing of a circus worker last month, police said on Friday.

Deepak Kumar, 27, a resident of Udhampur district, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne militants from a close range when he had gone to the market to buy milk on the night of May 29. He worked at a circus in the Janglat Mandi area in the south Kashmir district.

The prime accused in the case received weapon training through WhatsApp video calls from his handler, police said.

Addressing a press conference in Anantnag, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), South Kashmir Range, Rayees Mohammad Bhat said the terrorists belong to Kashmir Freedom Fighters (KFF) -- an offshoot of proscribed terror outfit JeM.

"Investigations and searches were launched after the incident. During the investigations, we got some technical leads and some clues. In the meantime, we zeroed in on some suspects and they were interrogated," Mr Bhat said.

He said the investigations pointed at two people, Sehran Bashir Nadaf and Ubaid Nazir Laigroo, both residents of Anantnag town who had gone missing.

"We launched a massive search operation to nab them. Based on technical and human intelligence, we were ultimately able to arrest these two accused after which the whole conspiracy was revealed," he said.

Apart from Nadaf and Laigroo, three others -- Umer Amin Thoker, Huzaif Shabir Bhat and Nasir Farooq Shah -- have been arrested, the DIG said.

So far, one AK-47 rifle, one AK-47 magazine, 40 AK-47 rounds, two pistols, two pistol magazines, seven pistol rounds and empty cartridges each, three hand grenades, seven mobile phones and a scooter have been seized. Further leads are being followed, he said.

Mr Bhat said this group of terrorists had been working in south Kashmir for some time.

"We expect more arrests and further revelations. This a classic example of a hybrid terrorist module," he said.

Meanwhile, in a statement, police said prime accused Nadaf had been trained by a terrorist handler identified with the alias Khalid Kamran, via WhatsApp video calls regarding the usage of weaponry.

They had been instructed to find and attack minority community soft targets and instructed about the mode of recce and other details, police said.

The entire conspiracy of how weapons were sourced, passed on and routed to the actual trigger puller and how to maintain communication discipline as well as how to cover tracks and hide evidence has been uncovered, it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)