Jatt’s killing ‘big success’, will approach Pak to take back his body: Police

Srinagar, Nov 28: Director General of Police, Dilbagh Singh, on Wednesday termed the killing of Lashkar-e-Toiba Commander Naveed Jatt a “big success” for the government forces.

“The specific thing about the operation was the killing of the Chief Commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba who had been operating in the valley for a long time. This is the biggest success as he was involved in killings, kidnappings, throat slitting, forcing youth to join militant ranks, and bank robberies in south Kashmir,” Singh said.

“We will be writing to the ministry of home affairs to inform Pakistan to take his body.”

With Jatt’s killing, the Director General of Police (DGP) believed “the graph of militancy has come down coupled with no fresh recruitment of youth into militant ranks”.

“In the last one week, nearly 24 militants have been killed, which is actually a good sign for the peace-loving people. There have been a few successful operations in which top commanders have been killed. It relatively brought down their activities in south Kashmir with no new recruitments of youth into militant ranks,” he said.

The DGP said, “The killing of militants also improved Law and Order situation, and stone pelting incidents too decreased. The killing of innocent people has stopped now. For the last two months, no new youth has joined militancy in the valley. That is a welcome development.”

Singh claimed the investigation into the killing of Rising Kashmir Editor-in-Chief, Shujaat Bukhari, would continue even after Jatt’s death. Police claims that he was the prime accused in the case.

“We were willing to catch them live, so that we could get more information. But as Naveed was killed in the gunfight, the things were not clear. The investigation is still going on, and the details would be made public at completion,” he said.

Saying only counted number of militant commanders were now operating in the valley, the DGP appealed the local militants “to shun the path of violence”.

“They (militants) must return to their homes. We don’t feel happy in killing the local militants. We will ensure their rehabilitation, if they are not involved in crimes. Government is seriously pursuing the rehabilitation policy for those who have shunned the path of violence,” he said.

Despite killing nearly over 250 militants this year, Singh said currently 200-250 militants would be active within the valley.

“The number keeps on fluctuating as some manage to enter to this part through infiltration.”

Saying that the forces were trying to ensure less collateral damage during operations, the DGP appealed the people to remain away from the encounter sites.

“There have been some small incidents at the encounter sites. This is not a good thing to trigger law and order situation. So youth should not go close to the encounter sites,” he said.

Asked about the use of social-media by the militants, Singh said, “The do it to lure youth towards militancy.”

“Everybody is trying to show his presence, so do the militants. They are posting photos and videos on social media to motivate more youth to join the militant ranks,” he said.

The DGP said posting of pictures by militants on social media would help them in their anti-militancy operations.

Commenting on the photograph of Umar Majeed Ganie of Hizb near Ganta Ghar (Clock Tower), he said the picture was not a fresh one.

On coming up of new bunkers with intensified frisking by forces in city areas, Singh said the step has been taken in view of encounters in Srinagar areas.

“There were some encounters in the city and people do understand it. Peace in the city is our top priority,” he said.