Image Source: AGENCIES

29-04-2023
WATSUPPTODAY DESK

A guy who was recently detained for questioning in relation to the Poonch terror incident has been apprehended by the J&K Police. Nisar Ahmad, a resident of the Poonch hamlet in Gursai, has been named as the defendant. Five troops were killed and one was injured in the terror attack on April 20. Security authorities think the Poonch incident was carried out with active local backing, according to DGP Dilbagh Singh on Friday, who listed Nisar as one of the 200 persons who had been questioned. Singh said that his family was also involved in supporting terrorists. Family gave them shelter’ Nisar, who was recently detained for questioning, has been arrested for sheltering the terrorists who attacked an Army truck, leaving five soldiers dead on April 20.His family was also involved in providing support to terrorists, says DGP. Nisar was an overground worker of Lashkar-e-Toiba in 1990s.According to the DGP, six persons of a module have been arrested. They include those who have provided material (weapons, ammunition, explosives) to the terrorists besides shelter and food and guided them from one to another place. He also said that the explosives and weapons used in the attack came from Pakistan through drones. While ambushing the Army truck on April 20, a sharpshooter killed the driver while others rained bullets from both sides. The militants had also snatched rifles of the soldiers before blasting the truck. The terrorists used steel-coated armor-piercing bullets and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to target the vehicle, causing maximum damage, Singh said. Without local support such attacks can’t be carried out. The terrorists had done a thorough recce and were provided logistic support by local residents,” he said. “The vehicle was moving at a very low speed because of a sharp turn and attackers had chosen the spot after proper recce,” the police said. DGP Dilbag Singh said Nisar has confessed to providing logistical support to the terrorists. The militants stayed at Nisar’s residence before relocating to the Bhata Dhurian forests. The security forces took Nisar to the forest to reach the terrorists’ hideout.
Giving further details about the module, Singh said Nisar had been a terrorist for a long time. “He was working as an overground worker for a Pakistan-origin Lashkar-e-Toiba commander in the 1990s. He was under our radar. We had picked him two to three times in the past for interrogation. He was in our list of suspects and was picked this time too,” he said. Security officers are locating potential natural hiding places that the attackers may have utilised while they conduct an intensive search operation to apprehend them, he added. The Rajouri-Poonch region may be home to nine to twelve foreign jihadists who may have just infiltrated, according to preliminary findings, the DGP revealed.