Police said the ten men were JeM associates and arrested from Tral and Khrew areas of south Kashmir’s Pulwama.

Jammu and Kashmir police claimed on Monday they have busted two modules of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and arrested ten associates of the militants in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Police said the ten men were JeM associates and arrested from Tral and Khrew areas of Pulwama. The department’s spokesperson Manoj Kumar said four people were arrested in Tral.

“In view of the surge in terror attacks in Tral, in which civilians and security forces were targeted, creating an atmosphere of panic and fear, a special team was constituted to investigating these cases and on the basis of material evidence collected, four persons were taken into custody,” he said.

The four have been identified as Younis Nabi Naik, Fayaz Ahmad Wani, Riyaz Ahmad Ganaie and Bilal Ahmad Rather.

“Investigation into the cases revealed their complicity in the terror attacks carried out in Tral area of south Kashmir,” Kumar said.

Another module was busted in Khrew area of Pampore in which six associates of JeM were arrested on the basis of incriminating material recovered. The spokesperson identified them as Javaid Ahmad Parray, Yasir Bashir Wani, Tahir Yousuf Lone, Rafiq Ahmad Bhat, Javaid Ahmad Khanday and Imran Nazir.

“Huge quantity of incriminating material was recovered from this terror module, including gelatin sticks, detonators, materials for making IEDs and grenades. All the incriminating materials have been taken in case records to probe their complicity in other terror crimes,” Kumar said.

Last month was also the bloodiest month of this year for the insurgents as 37 militants were killed in gun battles with security forces across Kashmir. Among the militants killed in November, nine were top commanders, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s face Naveed Jatt, who was shot dead last Wednesday in Budgam district.

Official data shows 227 militants have been killed in different parts of Kashmir so far this year. While they belonged to different organisations, the Lashkar and Hizbul Mujahideen suffered major losses last month as both groups lost some of their top commanders, especially in south Kashmir, which has become a hotbed of militancy.

Last year, 207 militants were killed in this period.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times,Dec 3,2018