SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri militant arrested by Delhi police, Liyaqat Shah was on Saturday sent to judicial custody till April 12 by a court there, Delhi-based media report.
Ali, a resident of northern Kashmir’s Lolab area, was arrested last week after he returned from Pakistan and entered India via Nepal with his family.
Delhi police 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.
The arrest sparked a controversy as the authorities in Kashmir contended the Delhi police saying Ali 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.
Recommended: Liyaqat Told Delhi Police He Had Come to Surrender
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing into the case on directions of the union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde. Kashmir’s chief minister Omar Abdullah had complained to him about the case over telephone.
Abdullah on Monday told the state legislative assembly in winter capital Jammu that Ali “was not headed to Delhi to carry out any militant attack”.
“If he wanted to attack a shopping mall then why would he bring his family along?”
He said Ali’s arrest was a setback to the flagship project of facilitating the return of former militants from Indian administered Kashmir who are living in Pakistan.
Also Read: Kashmir Chief Lambasts New Delhi
