‘Hindu’ LeT militant arrested from UP, planned attacks on army, police, also accused in killing 6 cops in Kashmir
Srinagar: J&K police said on Monday they arrested an UP man
who allegedly helped Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) attack army convoys, snatch weapons
and loot lakhs of rupees.This is likely the first such arrest of an Indian LeT
operative outside the Kashmir Valley. Most of the group’s members come from the
Valley, Pakistan and PoK, police say. Police said Sandeep Kumar Sharma moved to
Kashmir in 2012 for work and would travel to Punjab during winter for
alternative employment.But he returned in Jan.with plans to rob ATMs, and made
contact with LeT militants through local informants and allegedly became an
associate of notorious LeT militant Bashir Lashkari, police added.He allegedly
planned at least 5 cases of ATM loot worth lakhs of rupees earlier this year.
He was also allegedly a part of LeT teams that attacked an army convoy in
Qazigund, snatched weapons in Anantnag and attacked a police party at Achabal
in which 6 cops including a SHO, were killed, J&K police chief Muneer Khan
said. Valley’s police have reached out to their counterparts in UP for further probe.“Of course, he (Sharma) is a
militant. Criminal elements are now joining the militants for their own goals….
terrorists of Lashkar used him very frequently in carrying out nefarious
activities,” Khan told a packed audience in Srinagar on Monday morning.Police
said Sharma – who was presented for photographs with a black cloth covering his
face -- used an alias of Adil and had the advantage of not being from the state
and his car having UP-registration number plates. Along with Sharma, police
also arrested one Muneeb Shah of Kulgam, a part of the same Lashkar
module.“Certainly it’s a challenge. It’s a new scenario…We have to be careful
about all workers coming into Kashmir from other parts of India. In most cases,
characters or antecedents are not known, so we have to go for in-depth
verification,” added Khan. Police said they first came across Sharma during a
July 1 encounter in Dialgam during a 4-hour operation to rescue 17 civilians
taken hostage by militants. Khan said the police then questioned him to find
out what he was doing there.“On further inquiry by police, it was revealed that
Sharma along with other individuals hatched a criminal conspiracy leading to
providing shelter, ferrying of terrorists from one place to other for terror
strikes and actively participating in terrorist activities,” the police press
note added.
J-K police arrest UP man Sandeep Sharma, part
of LeT module that killed 6 cops in Kashmir
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