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  India   Top Hizb militant is arrested in Kashmir

Top Hizb militant is arrested in Kashmir

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : May 29, 2016, 3:25 am IST
Updated : May 29, 2016, 3:25 am IST

The security forces on Saturday said they have apprehended a top militant of Hizbul Mujahideen and termed the seizure as a “major blow” to Kashmir’s frontline militant outfit.

Tariq Pandit
 Tariq Pandit

The security forces on Saturday said they have apprehended a top militant of Hizbul Mujahideen and termed the seizure as a “major blow” to Kashmir’s frontline militant outfit.

A defence spokesman here said that Tariq Pandit, a close aide of the Hizb’s iconic figure Burhan Wani, was captured “in a well coordinated swift operation” on Newa-Pinglana Road of southern Pulwama district.

Earlier reports had suggested that Pandit surrendered before the Army which has tightened the noose around the militant group and, in fact, has along with local police’s counter-insurgency special operations group (SOG) carried out a series of successful operations against militants across the Valley in the past few weeks.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. N.N. Joshi said that based on specific intelligence input about the movement of Pandit along the Neva-Pinglana Road, a joint mobile vehicle checkpost was established by the Army and the SOG on Saturday morning.

“The movement of the terrorist was kept under constant surveillance and, as he closed in, he was apprehended by the team of Rashtriya Rifles battalion,” an officail said, adding that one 9 mm pistol, two Chinese grenades and other “war-like stores” we-re recovered from Pandit.

He added that the Hizb militant has been involved in many terror-related incidents in the Pulwama area and that an FIR has been registered and subsequently Pandit was handed over to the local police station.

Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Rifles and Territorial Army along with J&K police have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition during a search operation in Khangar Forest of frontier Rajouri district. The recovery includes one AK- 56 rifle, two pistols, one UBGL, one 7.62 mm Barrel, six magazines of AK-47, three rounds of RPG, two anti rank rifle grenades, two UBGL grenades, two Chinese hand grenades, 120 rounds of AK-47, eight rounds of Pika, 30 rounds of pistol, 166 rounds of 303 rifle , one pouch and one solar plate, officials said.

Location: India, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar