A Lashkar-e-Taiba militant allegedly involved in stealing weapons from a Congress MLC’s house last December, was arrested in Srinagar, police said on Wednesday.
Danish Haneef Wani, a resident of Azad Basti Natipora and an active LeT militant, was arrested based on a specific input about his movements near Kursoo, Rajbagh in Srinagar.
“We were tracking him and he was arrested by a special police team,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal said.
Gunmen had looted four AK47 rifles from the official residence of Congress legislator, Mohammad Muzuffar Parray at Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar after allegedly overpowering a security guard on December 30, 2018. The senior Congress leader was not present in his house then. He was in the winter capital Jammu along with his family at the time of the robbery.
“Wani is the main accused in the weapons loot case. He had joined LeT soon after looting weapons from the MLC’s house,” Mughal said.
In January, Wani’s pictures posing with a gun had gone viral on social media.
A police spokesperson said that the militant had been questioned regarding the theft of weapons on 30 Dec, 2018.
“Further questioning of the arrested accused is on so as to advance the investigation in the case,” he said.
The police had earlier arrested another LeT militant, Showket Ahmed Khan, a resident of Aarth-Narbal Budgam, in March this year. The second militant was also an accused in the same case.
Four police personnel, who were guarding the official residence of the Congress legislator when the weapons were looted, were dismissed from service for dereliction of duty.
There have been a number of weapon snatching cases last year. In October, unidentified gunmen snatched two weapons from policemen guarding a retired police officer’s house in Budgam.
Earlier on September 28, 2018, a personal security officer (PSO) had stolen seven rifles and one pistol from legislator Ajaz Ahmad Mir’s residence in Srinagar. Mir was also not present at his residence and was in Jammu at that time. His SPO, Adil Bashir, later joined militant ranks. On September 30, militants had stolen an AK 47 rifle after attacking a police station in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. A 23-year-old policeman, Saqib Mir, was killed in the attack.
First Published:
Apr 03, 2019 19:31 IST
Source: HindustanTimes