Srinagar, June 21: Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Monday appreciated “positive impact” of the ongoing ceasefire along LoC between India and Pakistan even as he termed as wrong to rule out the presence of foreign militants in Kashmir Valley.
Addressing the reporters in the backdrop of overnight gunfight at Sopore in which three militants including LeT commander Mudasir Pandit were killed, the top police officer of J&K said the security establishment was ready for the Amarnathji Yatra but underlined that the shrine board was the right authority to comment on conducting the annual pilgrimage to cave shrine amid covid-19 pandemic.
Giving details of the Sopore gunfight, the DGP said the all three militants were wanted and one of them Mudasir Pandit had 18 FIRs lodged against him in various police stations related to the killing of policemen and civilians.
He said a foreigner identified as Abdullah alias Asrar was working with Pandit for a long time while third militant Khursheed Ahmad Mir of Brath Kalan Sopore had six cases registered against him.
He said the group was also involved in two major attacks in the Sopore area—One on March 29 this year in which two Municipal Councillors and a policeman were killed and second on June 12 in which two policemen and as many as civilians were killed at main market Sopore.
Responding to a question regarding the number of foreign militants killed in J&K this year, he said: “So far this year, two foreign militants have been killed and incidentally both were killed in Sopore. Both were from LeT and it depicts that there is still presence of foreign militants.
He said that the infiltration so far has been strongly checked along the LoC and there has been a positive impact of the agreement at higher level regarding the ceasefire on LoC. “We welcome it (ceasefire). There is a good amount of foreign militants in Kashmir and as such it would be wrong to say that there is no foreign militant and future operations will continue to target them.”
Regarding the question on the number of militants active in Srinagar, the DGP said: “There is no such presence of militants in Srinagar city but we couple of people who have gone active and are moving around in outskirts of Srinagar and are going to neighboring districts also. Police is watchful and we are tracking them wherever they go.”
He said that one or two incidents have taken place in Srinagar recently and were possible given the scenario that Srinagar, like big cities, has lots of movement of people.
“You cannot filter every movement 100%. Our network is quite strong and I assure you that in the near future we are going to get some good operations around Srinagar,” he said.
To a question on Amarnathji Yatra, he said: “As far as the security establishment is concerned, we are prepared. Rest Shrine Board is the right authority to comment on that.”
Regarding the Saidapora incident involving killing of a policeman earlier this month, the DGP said that police have got the leads which “we won’t like to share at this time”.
“We are after the culprit and very soon we will bring him to justice.”
