J&K Terror Module Busted; Duo Motivated by LeT Man Who Was Once ‘NaMo Supporter’

Hours before the first convoy of Amarnath Yatris leave for the holy cave, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have busted a module with the arrest of two men who allegedly received arms and ammunition through drones to carry out improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.

Drones dropping sticky bombs, arms, etc. are being seen as the biggest threat to the yatra this year.

“Two accused ? Mohd Shabir and Mohd Sadiq ? have been arrested. The third accused, Talib Shah, is absconding,? a statement by Jammu police said.

They were motivated by Talib Shah, the absconding alleged mastermind in the Rajouri blast case, who used to be a Narendra Modi supporter, said police.

Mukesh Singh, ADG Jammu, told News18: “During questioning, Shabir and Sadiq have confessed that they used to collect arms dropped by drones and use it for terror activities. A person named Qasim, who is based in POK, is their handler. He would share coordinates of the drone and the module would collect the arms. They used two such IEDs for the Rajouri blast.?

?The plan was to use various such smaller modules to carry out attacks on the Amarnath Yatra,? said Singh.

Both Shabir and Sadiq are Gujjars.

Five IEDs, five remote controls, and other explosive material were recovered from Shabir and Sadiq, police said.

?I LOVE NAMO?

Talib Shah used to run a news portal, News Sehar India, said police. His profile picture from 2018 is ?I love NaMo?, police added.

This Facebook page has various other BJP-related posts from the same year, but has not been updated since.

Police suspect he is now the commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Rajouri. ?He is the mastermind of all terrorist activities in Peerpanjal area. He has also motivated many youths to carry out terror activities in Rajouri. He has remained instrumental in almost all terror incidents in Peerpanjal districts in the past two-three years,? Jammu police statement said.

Shah has been accused of sheltering Kashmir-based active terrorists of LeT outfit in the Kandi-Budhal area.

“Recoveries have been made from the jungle in Draaj area, from their residence and Shah’s dhok (highland pasture),? ADG said.

Peerpanjal-Kotranka town was rocked by twin blasts on March 26 and another blast on April 19, in which two people were injured. A third blast took place in Shahpur, Budhal on April 14 in which two labourers were injured. Sticky bombs are suspected to have led to the explosion in a bus carrying pilgrims from Katra in May.

Agencies on high alert for the yatra saw all these as test runs before the yatra.

Security grid suspects the threat to yatra is more in the Jammu region this year, than in the Valley.

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