Majid Jahangir

SRINAGAR, July 12: The police remand of the four policemen arrested for their alleged link with militants was today extended till July 16 by a Srinagar lower court.

In its remand application, the police claimed that a girl from Tral in south Kashmir had developed intimacy with an over-ground-worker (OGW) of Hizbul Mujhideen who worked for the outfit’s top militant commander Shabir Ahmad alias Adil. The police said she was instrumental in strengthening the relation between the OGW and one of the arrested cops.

The police further said that OGW Reyaz Ahmad Ganai developed friendship with Mohammad Abbas, a constable with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who was tasked to infiltrate into militants ranks for intelligence gathering.

“The OGW’s girlfriend was doing her nursing training in Jammu and Ganai would usually shuttle to Jammu to meet her. Abbas also had a house in Jammu and Ganai used to take his car to meet his girlfriend,” the police said.

The police sources said the girl’s name surfaced during the interrogation of the arrested cops. “The girl has no role in the case but as she was putting up in Jammu, it helped Ganai and Abbas to get closer,” said a police officer.

The police said that cop Abbas later met Shabir who offered him money and sought information about residential addresses and pictures of the secret police officials.
Abbas later met three other accused Mukhtar Ahmad Sheikh, Muhammad Ilyas Khan and Riyaz Ahmad Beigh and lured them for providing information to the militants. After convincing them in August last year, Ganai gave Rs 60,000 to Abbas.

“After receiving money, the four accused police personnel gave weapons, explosives and provided information about police officer sought by the militants,” the police said.

Shabir later sent Rs 2,60,000 to Abbas through Ganai. However, in March 2012, Ganai sent a warning to Abbas that he should return the money to him for not sharing complete information. Abbas later returned money.

The activities of Abbas and other cops came to fore when a former Hizbul militant Ghulam Hassan Mir was attacked on June 7 in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar.

The police became suspicious about the activities of the constable who was brought in for questioning which revealed “incriminating evidence” against him.

Abbas was summoned by the police last month for questioning. The police recovered a document in Urdu from Abbas showing various ways of making improvised explosive devices (IED) and also how to use them.

The questioning of Abbas subsequently led to the arrest of three more cops.

(Author is correspondet with The Tribune)