Was an al-Qaeda man held in Kashmir after 9/11?

Did an al-Qaeda operative made his way into Jammu and Kashmir soon after the 9/11 attacks in the US?

If the records of Jammu and Kashmir Government are to be believed,a member of the internationally banned terror outfit was arrested in the state three months after the strikes in the United States nine years ago.

Records of the state Home Department submitted in the Assembly maintain that Qamar Ayoub,a Pakistani national,was an al-Qaeda trained terrorist and also affiliated with Harkat-ul-Ansar militant group.

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Ayoub was arrested on December 23,2001 and is currently lodged at the District Jail in Sangroor in Punjab.

The alleged al-Qaeda operative had crossed the Line of Control into Kashmir. He was arrested with one rifle and several grenades were also recovered from him.

As per the records,Ayoub was involved in two attacks against security forces. He was granted a consular access in October 2005,when he was lodged in Central Jail Amritsar.

Ayoub is among 51 Pakistani and Afghan militants who were arrested from the state over the last 20 years and are serving the detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

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As many as 14 of these militants belong to Lashkar-e-Toiba,a group which is blamed for the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai.

Eleven militants belong to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and nine belong to Tehreek-e-Jehad-i-Islami (TJI). Seven arrested TJI militants are from Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Shareif province.

One Lashkar militant,identified as Shahzad Khan alias Captain Abdullah Umar,is a discharged Pakistani Air Force captain who had taken part in the Kargil war in 1999.

Khan,who is a recipient of “Tamgay Jurat” (Bravery Medal),was arrested in August 2008 from Rajbagh area of the city and is lodged at Hiranagar Sub-jail.

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