New Delhi: The Delhi Police and the National Investigating Agency (NIA) are at odds over whether an alleged Jaish-e-Mohammad commander, arrested by the police Thursday night, is wanted in the 14 February Pulwama attack.
Despite a clarification from the NIA, the Delhi Police’s special cell maintains that the arrested militant, Sajjad Khan, is an accused in the attack at Pulwama, which killed 40 CRPF personnel.
The special cell had claimed that Sajjad Khan was in contact with Mudasir Ahmed Khan, the alleged mastermind of the Pulwama attack. “He is an associate of Mudasir Khan, who was the mastermind of the Pulwama attack. Khan was tasked by Mudasir to establish a sleeper cell in Delhi,” a special cell officer said.
Deputy commissioner of police (special cell), P.S. Kushwaha said that Sajjad had been specially sent to Delhi to carry out reconnaissance of important targets and to set up a hideout in Delhi.
“This has been done to select specific targets and also to radicalise and recruit Muslim youth of UP and other states, provide them weapon training, explosives and field craft, raising funds and collecting weapons,” he said. “Sajjad Khan was staying under the guise of a shawl vendor.”
A source in the NIA, however, clarified that though Sajjad was wanted by the agency in a UAPA case, he was not the Sajjad Khan suspected to have provided the vehicle, laden with explosives, which was used in the Pulwama attack.
“He is a Jaish militant who is wanted in a separate case that was registered in March on the basis of intel inputs and not the Pulwama case,” the NIA source said. “Also, he is not that Sajjad who provided the vehicle and turned it into an IED.”
The NIA is still on the lookout for the Sajjad Khan believed to be involved in the Pulwama attack.
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Input on Sajjad came from CIA: police
According to Kushwaha, the input on Sajjad came from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which mentioned that an active cadre of JeM had shifted to Delhi with the intention of establishing a sleeper cell and is staying under the cover of a shawl vendor.
“Vigil was mounted and information was further developed. This input was developed through sources and physical surveillance was mounted in which movements of these operatives were closely and discreetly monitored,” Kushwaha said. “A team was deployed near Lal Quila red light and Sajjad Ahmed Khan was nabbed.”
Sajjad a Tral resident, brother was close friend of Pulwama mastermind: police
The Delhi Police has claimed that the arrested Sajjad Ahmed Khan hails from Pulwama and is a Class 10 dropout. Police say that he received his primary education from the Government Primary School, Handoora, and then took admission at the Government High School, Syed Abad Pastuna, Tral.
According to the police, Sajjad was inducted into Jaish by his brother Ishfaq, who was allegedly a close friend of Pulwama mastermind Mudasir.
According to the police, Sajjad and two of his brothers were earlier engaged in stone pelting incidents and Ishfaq had been arrested for it in February 2015.
Ishfaq allegedly initially worked as an overground JeM worker but later turned into an active militant. He was allegedly killed by security forces at Lam in Tral on 25 April, 2018.
After his death, Mudasir Ahmad Khan started visiting Sajjad and began encouraging him to join Jaish, police said. “Sajjad initially provided information about the movement of convoys and cordon and search operations carried out by Army,” Kushwaha said. “Mudasir later instructed Sajjad to spot young Kashmiri youths for fidayeen attacks.”
According to the police, on the day of Pulwama terror attack, Mudasir contacted Sajjad on Whatsapp and informed that they have carried out the CRPF convoy attack. Mudasir then sent him the video of Adil Dar (fidayeen), which he deleted from his phone.
“On the instructions of Mudasir, Sajjad moved to Delhi to establish a sleeper cell of JeM,” Kushwaha said.
Arrested militant was with another Jaish module: NIA
According to the NIA source, however, the arrested Sajjad was working with a Jaish module in south Kashmir, which was allegedly planning to set up cells in Delhi to carry out terror strikes ahead of the elections.
“He was a part of the Jaish module in south Kashmir and had been on our radar for a few months now,” the source said. “He was playing an active part arranging logistics to set up the cells in Delhi to carry out terror strikes in the capital in the coming months.”
According to Delhi police, Sajjad, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, was living in Delhi as a shawl seller and was in touch with Mudasir and some operatives in Pakistan through Whatsapp and Telegram.
“We have recovered some incriminating documents, some chats to prove that he was in touch with Mudassir and others across the border to plan terror activities,” a special cell officer said.
After Sajjad is produced in the court, NIA will take his custody to further question him regarding the activities of the south Kashmir module he allegedly worked for.