LeT now targets local youths with passports: Police

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Changing its strategy, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) guerrilla outfit has been trying to engage local boys, holding passports, after its foreign cadres started coming under pressure from the security forces, a senior police official said here Thursday.

"After things started becoming hot for the foreign cadres of the LeT in the state, the outfit's changed strategy has been to involve local boys, especially those having passports, to continue its subversive activities," Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, S.M. Sahai said here.

Sahai said the arrest of the three people identified as Ahtisham Malik, Tauseef Ahmad Peer and Shafqat Ahmad, all belonging to north Kashmir's Sopore town, by Delhi Police was the result of coordinated pooling of intelligence by police of Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Delhi.

"One of the three arrested persons, Ahtisham Malik, had been on the radar of the Jammu and Kashmir Police for quite sometime," he said.

"He had gone to Pakistan and ever since he was on our radar. We were keeping a close watch on his activities and his arrest along with two other persons has been a result of coordinated efforts of J&K police, Jharkhand Police and the Delhi Police," said Sahai.

Sahai, however, said that the latest module unearthed through the arrest of the three persons was not a large one.

"It is a small module and it is only a very few number of the local youths who are being lured by the LeT now," he said.

Sopore's Superintendent of Police Syed Imtiyaz Hussain said that Malik was earlier also involved in militant activities in the area.

"He was under our constant surveillance. His arrest along with that of other three people has been possible because of sharing of information and alerts sent to Jharkhand and Delhi by us."