The Hindu : National : Hizb-ul-Mujahideen divisional commander arrested

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Wednesday, Jul 05, 2006

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Hizb-ul-Mujahideen divisional commander arrested

Praveen Swami

Hizb terror cell was directly responsible for 12 murders in Badgam and Srinagar between March, 2005, and May, 2006

NEW DELHI: Police in Jammu and Kashmir have announced the arrest of Manzoor Ahmad Wani, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's divisional commander for central Kashmir. Wani, who operated under the code-name `Yunus' is the seniormost Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative to be apprehended in a decade.

Wani was held in an intelligence-led operation that also enabled the arrest of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's district commander for Badgam, adjoining Srinagar, and four other senior operatives of Jammu and Kashmir's numerically-strongest terrorist group. Authorities said that the terror cell was directly responsible for 12 murders in Badgam and Srinagar between March, 2005, and May, 2006.

Sources said the arrests followed the interrogation of Mohammad Amin Khan, a Badgam-based car mechanic who was detained last week. Investigators found that Khan had fitted improvised explosive devices inside the fuel tanks of three cars used in a series of bombings in and around Srinagar during the last six months, and discovered that he had prepared a fourth for use in coming weeks.

Bandipora MLA Usman Majid - a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front who left terrorism to join politics - sustained serious injuries in the first of these bombings, which took place in November, 2005. A subsequent bombing in March, 2006, targeted a military convoy, while a May 25 attack was directed at Border Security Force personnel during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent round-table conference in Srinagar.

Wani joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in 1999, and began field operations in Jammu and Kashmir after training in Pakistan until 2001. He again left for Pakistan in 2003, returning to India in 2005 to take charge as a divisional commander from Jehangir Khalqi, who also uses the code-name 'Farooq Angrez.' Khalqi is now rumoured to be in Nepal, handling Hizb-ul-Mujahideen-linked assets in Kathmandu.

Badgam district commander Mohammad Yasin Itoo, for his part, had surrendered to Indian forces after training in Pakistan from 1997 to 1998, but then rejoined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen as a battalion commander in 2002. Under pressure from the Border Security Force, he surrendered for a second time. However, soon after his release from prison on bail in 2004, he was once again activated by Wani.

Like Itoo, his immediate subordinates Nissar Ahmad Wani and Bilal Ahmad Dar, had also spent time in jail for past terrorist activities. After a brief stint with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen from 1991 to 1992, Nissar Wani left the terror group and set up a medical shop. However, in 2005, he agreed to work for the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen as a courier. Dar, similarly, worked as a bus conductor after surrendering to Indian forces.

Officials said that funding for the cell was handled Ayaz Mehmood, a Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative who returned to Jammu and Kashmir in 2003 after spending eleven years working for the terrorist group in Pakistan. Mehmood, who returned to India through Kathmandu using a Pakistani passport , is believed to have funnelled upwards of Rs. 50 lakh to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen units operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

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