J&K police arrest two associates of missing police constable

READ: J&K constable goes missing with 4 rifles

On the same day, three youths – Aqib Dar, Gazi Fayaz and Abid Bhat of Kundalan and Kanihama villages of Shopian district also went missing. Constable Ahmad was part of the security cover of the SDPO, when militants attacked him at Bijbhera on December 24. The officer had sustained grievous injuries in that attack. Soon after the constable decamped with weapons, police constituted a team to trace the missing police man.

Police had apprehensions that Shakoor Ahmad, along with these three youths, was planning to join the militant ranks and was trying to contact the militants. Police carried raids at various places and two men Aquib Bashir and Gazi Fayaz were arrested along with the AK rifles.

“We have arrested two youths from Shopian. They were associates of the police constable who had decamped with four rifles last week. We recovered two rifles from the arrested youths,” Superintendent of Police Shopian, Altaf Khan, told The Indian Express. He said police has also managed to get some clues about the missing constable and his other associate. “Efforts are on to trace them.”

Last year, police constable Naseer Ahmad Pandit of Kareemabad Pulwama who was posted at the house of former Roads & Buildings Minister, Altaf Bukhari decamped with two rifles. Pandit later joined Hizbul Mujahideen commander of South Kashmir Burhan Wani. After joining the militant ranks his pictures along with Hizb commander surfaced on the social networking sites.