4 arrested as Army busts Hizbul-Mujahideen module in Kashmir
The police said that the Hizbul militants were misusing web chats to hatch and execute terrorist conspiracies.
Srinagar: The security forces on Monday claimed busting a Hizbul-Mujahideen module in Kashmir Valley after arresting four of its members including two militants.
The officials said the accused would use social media to radicalize the Kashmiri youth and then drive them into militancy.
A statement issued by the J&K police in Srinagar said that the Army had arrested two militants in Handwara in frontier district of Kulwara and two over-ground workers (OGWs) in Awantipora of southern Pulwama district.
“On specific information regarding movement of militants, a joint naka of Handwara police and 21 Rashtriya Rifles was laid at Chogal during which two persons identified as Merajudin Bhat and Obaid Shafi Malla, both residents of Awantipora, were caught while moving in suspicious circumstances,” the statement said.
It added that the duo was asked to stop but they tried to run away. “The naka party immediately swung into action and caught hold of them. On checking them, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered,” the statement said adding that during the investigation, they revealed that they had come to Handwara for receiving ammunition and other war like stores for their militant outfit in South Kashmir.
The police said that its cyber surveillance unit also tracked their social media network accounts and found some ‘incriminating’ material. “They were misusing web chats to hatch and execute terrorist conspiracies,” the statement alleged.
It further said that preliminary investigations revealed that these militants were members of a Hizbul-Mujahideen module “who would not only recruit youth into militancy by radicalizing them over social media but would also coordinate their training and arrange arms and ammunition.
The police said that on the disclosure of these two militants two more members of the module working as OGWs were arrested from Awantipora. They have been identified as Shahid Ahmad Thoker and Irfan Ahmad, both residents of Awantipora, a highway town in Pulwama.