JeM key operative arrested in Delhi

New Delhi, March 22

The Delhi Police have arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative suspected to be involved in the Pulwama terror attack conspiracy.

The accused, Sajjad Ahmad Khan, a close aide of Pulwama mastermind Mudasir Khan, had been living in Delhi posing as a shawl vendor.

The JeM had sent Sajjad to the capital to carry out reconnaissance of key targets and set up a sleeper cell. He was tasked with radicalising and recruiting youths from UP and other states, providing them with weapons training, explosives and field craft, raising funds and collecting weapons, said DCP (Special Cell) PS Kushwah.

A central intelligence agency had alerted the police about a JeM operative having shifted to Delhi to set up a sleeper cell, the DCP said. On March 21, the police had received information that a JeM operative was slated to visit the Lal Quila red light area. A team was deployed and Sajjad (27), a resident of Tral’s Handoora village in Pulwama district of J&K was arrested, he said.

Sajjad and his two brothers were engaged in stone-pelting incidents in the Valley. In February 2015, Sajjad’s brother Ishfaq was arrested under the Public Safety Act for stone-pelting and stayed at a Srinagar jail for nine months. — TNS