SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s chief minister Omar Abdullah has rushed to New Delhi to intervene in the case of a former Kashmiri militant who was returning home from Pakistan when the Delhi Police arrested him for plotting an attack, sources say.
The Delhi police claimed that Liyaqat Ali Shah was an active militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen group planning to strike in the country capital ahead of Holi festival.
But sources told freepresskashmir that Omar is expected to tell the union home minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde that the state government and intelligence agencies had approved the return of Ali and his family under the militant ‘surrender and rehabilitation’ policy.
They say the state government is astonished that he was arrested and portrayed as a militant planning to strike, and fear that this may deter other former Kashmiri militants in Pakistan who have applied to return home from actually coming back.
An official statement says that Omar asked Shinde to get the case thoroughly probed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) “in a time bound manner to establish the facts.”
Earlier today the state’s junior minister for Home Affairs, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo told the legislative assembly: “An officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police in Jammu & Kashmir Police cell in Delhi has been deputed to find out from Delhi Police as to how they were claiming that he had planned to carry out fidayeen attacks in the Capital,”
“We don’t have any details about his arrest and whenever we get them, we will share with the House,” he said.
The issued was raised by Engineer Abdul Rasheed, an independent legislator from Lolab, the hometown of the arrested man.
Also Read: Kashmiri Accused of Plotting Delhi Attack Was ‘Happily Returning Home With Family’
