SRINAGAR: A Hizbul Mujahideen under-trial from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and a Constable died and four personnel were injured in a blast that occurred dramatically in a vehicle of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway at a time on Saturday when all the legislators of North Kashmir, including three Ministers, were holding a meeting at Baramulla.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, Gareeb Das told STATE TIMES that a Police party from Sopore taking an under-trial militant, Wahid Noor Khan of Rawlakote PoK, all the way from Srinagar Central Jail to Sopore to cause his attendance in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate. After the hearing when the under-trial was being taken back to the summer capital, he shouted at the driver of Police’s Tata Sumo and threatened to throw a grenade if he did not stop, near Hygam, at 2.10 p.m.
“Four of our men escorting the handcuffed detainee pounced upon him and tried to overpower and disarm him. A grenade in his hand went off, killing him on spot. All the four Policemen besides a Constable-Driver sustained splinter injuries. One of the critically injured, Constable Abdul Majeed of Mulshulla (Beerwah) Budgam later died at a hospital in Srinagar. All the four injured are out of danger”, DIG Gareeb Das said.
He said that later another hand grenade and a black jacket was recovered during search of the vehicle. DIG asserted that FIR had been filed and a departmental inquiry initiated into how two hand grenades and a black jacket reached into the possession of the detained and the handcuffed under-trial.
Knowledgable sources revealed to STATE TIMES that Wahid Noor Khan alias Hamza of Hizbul Mujahideen had been arrested and prosecuted for a subversive incident in Rajouri but acquitted by a court. Later, he had been shifted to Sopore and booked in FIR No: 393 in the year 2010. He was subsequently lodged in Srinagar Central Jail.
According to these sources, Police were verifying reports that a Sopore-based group of Hizbul Mujahideen militants had planned to secure the release of their colleague during his presence in the court. Some of the inputs available with Police indicated that the under-trial sought to ease himself in a toilet in which one of the militants had a while ago placed two hand grenades and a jacket of the same make and colour which Hamza was wearing. It is believed that the handcuffed Hamza changed his jacket and put both the grenades in its pockets. The careless escort personnel ignored the requirement of the detainee’s physical frisking when he came out of the washroom.
A police party reached the spot within minutes, seized the detainee’s body with a live grenade and a jacket. The injured personnel were rushed to SMHS hospital in Srinagar where Constable Majeed breathed his last.
Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin alleged in a statement that Hamza had been “killed in custody” exactly like another detained militant Shakeel alias Obaidullah had been eliminated in July 2013. He warned that his militant group come up with reprisals on the “conscienceless policemen responsible” for Hamza’s killing. Salahuddin said that “Mufti-Modi gameplan” was getting exposed with every passing day.
Chairman of so-called moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Omar Farooq too alleged that the under-trial had been killed in custody. Without explaining how one Constable died and four sustained injuries, Mirwaiz lamented that even the prisoners were not safe now in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, according to a Defence spokesperson, one infiltrating militant died in an encounter with Army close to the LoC in Machhil sector early on Saturday morning. Search was underway for others of the group who reportedly escaped from the ambush.