5 behind hit list website arrested in Kashmir

Srinagar, July 17

In a major breakthrough, the police on Saturday said the culprits behind the “terror and intimidation machinery”, which led to the killings of a prominent journalist, an advocate and a businessman in Jammu and Kashmir, have been arrested by carrying out raids in multiple locations in the union territory.

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said the police discovered the culprits secretly working behind the blog site “kashmirfight.wordpress.com”.

He said in a J&K wide operation, houses and properties at multiple locations, including Sanat Nagar, Rajbagh and Batpora in Srinagar, Hawal in Pulwama and Poonch and Jammu, belonging to five persons were searched.

Armed with search warrants granted by the competent court of law, police parties carried out searches of the suspect premises and recovered a large number of cell phones, digital storage devices and computing platforms, Kumar said.

In one house alone, 32 mobile phones, one tablet, two laptops, four hard disk storage devices, seven memory cards and one dongle were seized, he added.

The IGP said five persons were arrested and have been identified as Nazish Yasrab Rehmani and Tabish Akbar Rehmani from Sanat Nagar, Sofi Mohammad Akbar from Rajbagh, Peerzada Raqif Makhdoomi from Batpora Hazratbal and Javed Khalid from Poonch.

Kumar said “kashmirfight.wordpress.com” was being run by “a white collar terrorist syndicate whose task was to prepare a strategic hit list of government officers, journalists, social activists, lawyers and political functionaries”.

“They were assessed by the syndicate to be responsible for harming the overarching objectives of furthering and sustaining the Pakistani supported terrorist programme with the eventual aim of secession of Jammu & Kashmir from the Indian union and its eventual annexation with Pakistan,” he said. — PTI

Incriminating digital equipment seized

• Kashmir IGP Vijay Kumar said ‘kashmirfight.wordpress.com’ was being run by “a white collar terrorist syndicate whose task was to prepare a strategic hit list of govt officers, journalists, social activists, lawyers and political functionaries”
• Police recover incriminating digital equipment from houses raided across the UT. In one house alone, 32 mobile phones, one tablet, two laptops, four hard disk storage devices, seven memory cards and one dongle were seized