Jammu/Srinagar: Sameer Dar, the cousin of the February 2019 Pulwama suicide bomber Adil Dar, has told interrogators that he had dropped a batch of terrorists to the Valley in December last year, officials said here Sunday. This informed was acquired after Sameer was arrested while attempting to ferry Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists to Kashmir.
Sameer was nabbed by police Friday when he was trying to escape from Nagrota after Jaish terrorists opened fire on security forces.
Sameer, who hails from Kakpora area of Pulwama district in South Kashmir, confessed he had been successful in ferrying JeM terrorists to the Kashmir Valley last year and dropped them to Pulwama.
Sameer claimed he was not aware about their whereabouts since but told the interrogators that they were carrying large ammunition including ‘steel core bullets’ – which can pierce through a normal bullet-proof vehicle.
This has triggered an alarm bell within the security establishment especially Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the International Border with Pakistan. BSF have been maintaining in its inter-departmental meetings that there has been no infiltration from the border.
Sameer told his interrogators that infiltration from across the border has been continuing and the militants were fanning in various parts of the South Kashmir especially in Pulwama and Tral areas, the officials interrogating him, said.
Sameer also told them that the militants were dropped at Kareemabad in South Kashmir. He also gave the details of the arms and ammunition being carried by the terrorists, indicating that the group also had M-4 carbine and ammunition of steel core bullets.
The first assault with such bullet was noticed on the New Year eve in 2017 when JeM terrorists had carried out a suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Lethpora in South Kashmir.
Five personnel of the paramilitary force were killed in the attack and one of them was hit by a bullet fatally even though he was using a static bullet-proof shield provided by the Army, officials said.
The officials said the terrorists carrying M-4 carbine used by the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan have been extensively trained by the Pakistan’s ISI and could be used for carrying out sniper attacks in Kashmir Valley.
The weapons may have changed hands to JeM terror group as they were fighting along with Talibans in Afghanistan. The weapons are also used by the special forces of Pakistan army.
PTI