The Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday claimed it has solved the mystery of “Kashmir Islamic Movement” and said that the group involved in a series of killings, bombings and attacks on security forces and mainstream political activists, mainly in the Kashmir Valley over the past one-and-a-half years, is actually another front of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Shockingly, the key player behind the deadly exploit is a policeman.
Inspector-general of police (Kashmir range) Shiv Murari Sahai told a hurriedly called press conference here that the module was busted during the police’s investigations into more than a dozen militant attacks that took place in and around Srinagar between January 2011 and July 2012, including the killing of retired DSP Abdul Hameed Bhat early this month.
The militants associated with the shadow outfit, which would claim responsibility for each offence it committed during this period in the name of “Kashmir Islamic Movement”, had also tried to kill a senior leader of the ruling National Conference (NC) and the state’s minister for rural development and panchayats, Ali Muhammad Sagar. In the December 11, 2011 sneak attack at Nawab Bazaar in central Srinagar, though the minister escaped unhurt, one of his PSOs was killed and another wounded.
“The KIM is actually Hizbul Mujahideen’s shadow front involved in series of terrorist attacks,” the IGP said, adding that two militants associated with it have been arrested and shockingly one of them is a policeman. He was previously selected as a trainee constable and was discharged from the police department for his involvement in militant activities but was reinstated following a court injunction.
He identified the police constable as Abdul Rashid Shigan, alias Moulvi, alias Omer Mukhtar, a resident of Batamalloo suburb of Srinagar, and his accomplice as Imtiyaz Ahmad Gojri, alias Amir from Tengpora, Nawa Kadal locality of central Srinagar.