Terror attacks: J&K cops being probed

SRINAGAR: Jammu & Kashmir Police are investigating the role of its personnel in recent militant attacks in Srinagar, after three department sleuths were arrested for their involvement in a gun attack on a reformed militant. 

As part of the probe, police are on the lookout for two officers who have gone underground after the militant-police nexus was busted over the weekend. 

"A number of cases are being re-investigated," city police chief Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari said. "We have established the involvement of some cops in an attack on Shabnum (former militant), but I am not sure if the same lot was involved in other attacks in the city," Bukhari said. 

Jammu & Kashmir Police have reopened investigations into recent militant attacks in the state's summer capital, including last month's strike on a CRPF vehicle that left seven security men injured. Also being probed is the attack on the state's law minister, Ali Mohammad Sagar, in which an inspector-rank officer was killed. 

An interrogation of suspects in the June 7 attack on militant-turned-city trader Ghulam Hassan Mir (Shabnum) revealed that some police personnel tasked with gathering intelligence on militants were involved with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. "We are looking for two other cops who have gone underground," a senior police officer said. 

According to police sources, Shabnum, a resident of south Kashmir Tral township, was arrested in 2006 when he was working as a senior member of the militant group and had control over the outfit's liquid assets. He was set free a year later, after which he moved to Srinagar and opened a hosiery shop in Sadrabal, near Hazratbal. 

"Once he surrendered, he allegedly refused to give information on the assets, which angered the outfit," a police officer associated with the investigations said. 

Militants on Friday shot dead an office-bearer of the National Conference in the Natipora area of the city. Sources said the killing of two other NC ground-level leaders earlier is also being looked into.