J&K link opens up: 13 days after Ishrat died, man who tied her to LeT killed

Watch Video | Ishrat Jahan Fake Encounter Case: All You Need To Know

Mehmood also allegedly revealed that Babar “had been dispatched to Ahmedabad by Muzzamil (a senior LeT commander) for a VIP target”.

However, on June 28, 2004, 13 days after Ishrat was gunned down by Gujarat police and as doubts began to emerge over the killing, Mahmood and another Pakistani militant Zahid Hafiz were gunned down in an alleged staged encounter in Aastan Pora on the outskirts of Srinagar.

J&K police also claimed to have busted a Lashkar module in Srinagar and arrested 18 men who they claimed had provided logistic support to Mehmood and Zahid. Police pointed to the “connections of this module” with the “suspected LeT operatives who were gunned down in Ahmedabad on June 15”.

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However, all the 18 arrested, including an electrician deputed at the Chief Minister’s residence, a minister’s driver and a policeman, were subsequently released on bail.

After Mehmood and Zahid — the two witnesses who could have identified Babar — were killed, J&K police didn’t allow their counterparts from Gujarat to take custody of the 18 they had arrested for allegedly being part of Mehmood and Zahid’s module.

Sources said that a Gujarat police team even went to Srinagar looking for the four men J&K police had claimed had sheltered Babar — the team was only allowed to question three of the four.

Today, Mehmood’s alleged disclosure — he did not mention the names of Ishrat or her associates or any conspiracy targeting the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi — remains the only “evidence” to establish the claim that at least one of the three who was killed that day was a Pakistani national tied to LeT.

In his affidavit before Gujarat High Court, the Union Home Ministry’s Under Secretary, Internal Security, R V S Mani, stated that “two of the persons killed in the police encounter on 15-6-2004 were Pakistani nationals and it was known that they were sent by LeT to carry out terrorist actions in Gujarat”.

From Express Archives: R V S Mani affidavits tell how he was ‘coerced’

“One of the killed LeT cadre was Amjad Ali @Babar @Salim. J&K Police arrested, on June 25-28, a group of 18 LeT terrorists headed by the chief operational commander for central Kashmir Shahid Mehmood and his Pakistani associate Zahid Ahmad. In their disclosures, they mentioned that Amjad Ali @ Babbar @ Salim had entered India under express instructions… for organizing terrorist networks,” the affidavit stated.

In her affidavit, too, Parixita Gurjar, ACP Mahila, Ahmedabad, stated that investigations “by Kashmir Police has established that Salim @Babbar @Amjad Ali was (a) Pakistani terrorist and an associate of Abu Osama (killed in an encounter with Kashmir Police) and was dispatched to Ahmedabad by Muzzamil for VIP target.”

According to J&K police records, Mehmood revealed that he was “born and brought up in the family of Mohd Arif at Rebar Town (Tehsil Taxila/District Rawalpindi Pakistan)”. Police claimed his code names were Abu Osama, Abu Hassan, Abu Hadid and that he had operated in Kashmir since June 2001.

According to J&K police, he said that he was “asked” in April 2004 by “Abu Muzzamil, Operation Commander India excluding Srinagar” to “bring one Ab Adnan @ Babar R/O Pakistan to Srinagar from the hideouts in Bandipora area for his bullet injury treatment”.

Mehmood also allegedly told police that he was “tasked directly” by Muzzamil to send Babar to Delhi for “fidayeen action”. Police also quoted Mehmood as saying that Babar “met him near Idgah, Khanyar Srinagar, after he returned from Delhi and requested me for arranging two hand grenades and two pistols”.

“Subsequently I dropped the weapons at Idgah, point from where Abdul Rehman (LeT’s Srinagar commander) managed to pick it up directly through his own network,” Mehmood allegedly told police.

According to J&K police, Mehmood said that “about ten days ago 16/17 June 2004, while I was watching TV, I identified one of the militants killed by Ahmedabad Police as the aforementioned Babar”.

J&K police had claimed Mehmood’s killing as a major success, saying he had organised the attacks on the Pamposh Hotel in 2002, the Ali Jaan Complex in 2003, the CRPF’s 62 battalion in Indira Nagar and the Press Information Bureau. He was also accused of killing J&K police DIG Mohammad Amin Bhat and planning to attack the Bombay Stock Exchange.