Recruitment module of Let offshoot busted in Kashmir

Srinagar: Counterintelligence Kashmir (CIK), a wing of Jammu and Kashmir’s CID department, on Tuesday, busted a recruitment module of an offshoot of terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) during raids in the Valley.

An official said that sleuths of CIK carried out raids in many districts of Kashmir, including Srinagar, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kulgam, Budgam, Anantnag, and Pulwama.

“During the operation, a recruitment module of the newly formed militant organisation ‘Tehreek Labaik Ya Muslim’ (TLM) was dismantled. This group believed to be an offshoot of LeT was reportedly being operated by a Pakistani militant handler known as Baba Hamas,” officials said.

Intelligence agencies in Jammu and Kashmir believe that after the peaceful, people-participative Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections, terrorist groups and their handlers across have been frustrated and their revised strategy includes luring youth to join the terrorist ranks to revive violence.

“Such allurement is done by trying to stoke religious, ethnic or other sentiments so that the prevailing peace is disturbed,” said a senior intelligence officer.

On Sunday terrorists attacked unarmed, innocent civilian workers of a private company in the Gagangir area of Ganderbal district.

Seven people, including six non-local workers and a local doctor, were killed in the Gagangir attack and five others were wounded.

Pakistan-based terror outfit ‘TRF’ (The Resistance Front) later owned responsibility for the dastardly attack.

The dastardly attack on civilian workers engaged in building an important infrastructure project that would benefit the local economy and bring employment for the locals has been widely condemned.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister for Roads and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, former Chief Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mehbooba Mufti and many others have unequivocally condemned the terrorist attack.

Ex gratia relief has been sanctioned by the J&K Lt Governor in favour of the victims and the private company, APCO has also sanctioned relief to the next of kin of the victims.