Liyaqat Shah arrest: Shinde may ask NIA to investigate

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde may ask the National Investigating Agency (NIA) to verify the claims and counter-claims of the Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir Police over the “arrest” of alleged Hizbul Mujahideen militant Syed Liyaqat Shah and his identity, according to a Srinagar based newspaper. Casting doubts over the claims of Delhi Police that alleged Syed Liyaqat Shah had planned attacks in the national capital to avenge the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday evening discussed the issue with Shinde and asked him to hand over the case to NIA. Omar emphasised on getting the case thoroughly probed by the National Investigation Agency in a time-bound manner to establish facts, a state government spokesperson said. [caption id=“attachment_673211” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. Reuters[/caption] Controversy over the arrest of Liyaqat erupted following a statement by his family that he was returning home in the Valley along with his second wife and daughter under the state government’s policy for the rehabilitation of misguided Kashmiri youths. The policy is for youths who had gone to Pakistan or Pakistan occupied Kashmir for arms training but wanted to return home and lead a peaceful life. The family said his application for rehabilitation was cleared by state authorities. At a police station in Kupwara district, 150 kms from Srinagar, Liyaqat’s wife Akhtar Nisa today said that her husband has been falsely implicated as a terrorist. She said he travelled with her daughter and her on Pakistani passports to the Nepal border. “We came through a plane up to Kathmandu. But he was arrested at the Nepal border. They later put our luggage in a vehicle and he (Liyaqat) was separated from us,” she said. In Kashmir, Leader of the Opposition Mehbooba Mufti said Kashmiris are arrested without evidence and treated as “fodder for rewards and medals.” The Delhi Police, however, which arrested Liyaqat on 20 March, said it had received a tip-off in February that he was headed to Delhi to execute a terror strike on the instructions of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Police said they intercepted Liyaqat in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and that he then confessed that arms and ammunition were waiting for him in a guest house in Delhi. An AK-56 assault rifle, two magazines with 30 cartridges each and three hand grenades were later recovered by the police from there.