SRINAGAR: The union home ministry has ordered a probe into the arrest of Liyaqat Ali Shah by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), media reports from New Delhi say.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah had asked the Centre for a time-bound probe into the case.
Shah, a resident of northern Kashmir’s Lolab area, was arrested by the Delhi police last week after he returned from Pakistan and entered India via Nepal. They say he was an active militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen sent from Pakistan to carry out a strike in New Delhi ahead of the Holi festival.
But the authorities in Kashmir say Shah was a former militant and that they had all the information about his return from Pakistan. They say they had approved his request under the militant ‘surrender and rehabilitation’ policy launched by New Delhi.
Authorities in Kashmir are fuming at Shah’s arrest and see it as a setback to the flagship project of facilitating the return of former militants from Indian administered Kashmir who are living in Pakistan.
On Saturday, Omar Abdullah rushed to Delhi to meet the union Home Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde. But he could only have a telephonic conversation with him as the latter was out of station.
