The Hindu : Top terrorist shot dead in Srinagar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 07, 2004

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Top terrorist shot dead in Srinagar

By Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI, FEB. 6. Rafiq Ahmad Dar, overall commander of military operations for the terrorist group Al-Umar, was shot dead by a Jammu and Kashmir Police counter-terrorist unit in Srinagar on Thursday night.

Dar, who operated using the alias `Lidderi', was second in the Al-Umar hierarchy only to its supreme leader, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar. Zargar, better known by his nom de guerre Mushtaq Latram, was among the three terrorists released in return for the lives of passengers held hostage on the Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999.

Dar's killing is being described by the intelligence community as a major blow to the terrorist group.

Al-Umar operatives are believed to have been responsible for the February 2 killing of the Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Amin Bhat. Bhat was shot with a silencer-fitted pistol at point-blank range as he emerged from Id prayers. The Save Kashmir Movement, believed to be an Al-Umar front tasked with sabotaging the ongoing dialogue between the Central Government and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, had claimed responsibility for the killing.

In recent weeks, Al-Umar had held out threats to the moderate Hurriyat leaders who met the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, for talks. In a January 23 press release, Mr. Zargar had warned that "no one would be allowed to play with the sacrifices of the Mujahideen." "Today, when India is talking about dialogue and other such things, its forces have unleashed a reign of terror in Kashmir and are committing massive violation of human rights."

Intelligence officials here said Dar had been asked to draw up plans to kill the moderate Hurriyat leaders, notably Maulvi Abbas Ansari and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Security officials argue that Dar's story illustrates the perils involved in the release of prisoners now being contemplated as part of the ongoing peace process. Arrested for a string of terrorist acts in Srinagar in the 1990s, Dar was released on bail in 1999. Both courts and prosecutors had taken a liberal position on bail in the build-up to the Kargil war in the belief that a sharp de-escalation in terrorist activity warranted a more gentle criminal justice regime. Dar, however, jumped bail soon after his release and went underground.

At the end of 1999, Pakistani terrorists who had hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814 succeeded in securing a prisoners-for-hostages swap at Kandahar. Zargar was released along with two other top terrorists, Maulana Masood Azhar and Syed Omar Sheikh. Having made their way to Pakistan, all three resumed violent activity. Azhar went on to found the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Mr. Sheikh carried out the execution of journalist Daniel Pearl, and Zargar helped revive the near-defunct Al-Umar. The fact that Dar was at liberty provided Zargar with a ready-made local contact who could rebuild the organisation on ground.

The Al-Umar rapidly acquired a reputation for brutality, reactivating long-dormant cadre to carry out hits on police and Border Security Force personnel in crowded areas of downtown Srinagar.

The organisation, during his heyday in the early 1990s, publicly executed opponents by setting off explosives strapped around their bodies. "Most of its agents are ideologically committed and only too willing to engage in sadistic acts," says the Kashmir-zone Inspector General of Police, K. Rajendra.

Dar's elimination is part of the successful campaign by security forces to hit back at terrorists opposed to the dialogue process. Last month, security forces had killed the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's military chief, Ghulam Rasool Khan. Khan had been working hard to intimidate both Hurriyat moderates and pro-dialogue elements within the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen apparatus in Jammu and Kashmir.

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