Adil Ahmad Dar's family says J&K Police raided relatives' homes days before Pulwama attack, wanted him to surrender

The family of Adil Ahmad Dar says police raided the homes of their relatives just days before the Pulwama attack and wanted him to surrender.  Security officials were trying to track Adil’s movements months before the Pulwama attack, the deadliest in the Valley in decades, in which 42 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed.

Adil’s home was raided early last year. The family has accused security forces of setting it on fire. A window in their multi-storey home was damaged in the fire doused by locals after security forces left, Adil’s family alleged.

[caption id=“attachment_6090871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Adil Adhmad Dar. News18[/caption]

Adil’s cousin Touseef Ahmad Dar, who security forces accused of  “helping out Adil”, was detained four months ago. He was charged under the Public Safety Act and is now in jail. Another cousin was detained a few days ago — before the Pulwama attack — said a family member. She said the police were trying to get the family to “prevail upon Adil to surrender.”

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Adil’s mother Hameeda Banoo said he was “forced to take up the gun” due to “excesses by the forces.” Adil, she said, joined the ranks of militants on 21 March, 2018, and was a “regular mosque-goer who had memorised the Quran.” She added that she “rejoiced” that “Adil responded to the excesses with a massive attack.”

Adil was earlier injured at a protest in Newa village, close to his home in Gundibagh area of Pulwama in south Kashmir. He took a bullet in the leg while trying to help someone who had been injured in the anti-government protest. Hameeda said Adil was hospitalised and bedridden for months before he left home and became a militant. “After Adil was injured, he told me that when he died in jihad against the forces I shouldn’t grieve,” Hameeda added. Adil overtook the CRPF buses on the highway before ramming his vehicle into one of them. A bus was destroyed and some vehicles behind and ahead of Adil’s vehicle also suffered damage.

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Security officials said while they were probing how the attack was carried out by Adil and top Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander Kamran — the ‘mastermind’ of the attack who was killed in an encounter late Sunday night, along with two other militants — they noticed a new strategy by militants to cause heavy casualties on forces and “similarities” between Thursday’s attack and those carried out in Syria and Afghanistan.

A CRPF official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “We see a shift in the operational strategies of the militants.” A police official added, “We were surprised by the attack on CRPF convoy and scale of death it caused.” Another police official said, “The joint probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the police is on. A great deal of planning went into this attack.”

Police said the two other JeM militants killed in Sunday’s gunfight — in which Kamran was killed — were identified as Hilal Ahmad of Pinglena and Rashid Bhai alias Ghazi of Pakistan. Kamran was also a Pakistani national, officials said.  Sunday’s attack left four army men, including a major, dead while a brigadier rank officer was among the several others injured. A police head constable was also killed while Deputy Inspector General of Police, south Kashmir, Amit Kumar was shot in the leg. The personnel are being treated at the hospital in the Indian Army’s Srinagar headquarters.

Eyewitnesses said the bodies of CRPF men were “badly charred” and the personnel were taken by a surprise. After the attack, personnel were taken to a camp on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway. Traffic was halted and cleared only after hours.  A police official said CRPF personnel came under fire from militants after the attack, and returned fire. The militants managed to escape, he said.