 "Indian police officers stand guard at a check point following a suspected militant attack, near Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. Reuters")
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested Mohammad Yousuf Kataria, who allegedly provided logistical support to terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack, sources told CNN-News 18.
Yousef, who is allegedly a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF), was arrested after analysis of weapons seized in ‘Operation Mahadev’ led authorities to him, sources said.
Yousef, a native of J&K’s Kulgam, was arrested two days after he was called in for interrogation, according to sources.
“Srinagar Police have arrested an OGW [overground worker] from South Kashmir, identified as Mohd Yousuf Katari, 26, of Kulgam. He had a role in providing logistical support to the terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev," a police official told CNN-News18.
In the Pahalgam attack, terrorists on April 22 killed 26 persons, most of whom were tourists. Pakistan-based and -backed TRF, an offshoot of LeT, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Union government said that three terrorists involved in the attack were killed near Srinagar.
In a statement in Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Indain Army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Jammu and Kashmir Police killed three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack in a security operation on July 28 named Operation Mahadev. He said that investigation had established that they belonged to LeT. He said that they were named Suleman alias Faizal, Afghani, and Jibran.
Shah said, “While Suleman was an A-category commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Afghani was also an A-category Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, and Jibran too was a notorious and wanted terrorist. All these three terrorists involved in the killing of our citizens at Baisaran valley in Pahalgam have now been eliminated.”
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More ShortsShah said that weapons and bullets recovered from these terrorists matched those used in the Pahalgam attack.
The empty cartridges found at Pahalgam and those after test firing by the recovered guns were matched by the forensic lab, said Shah
“Six forensic experts have confirmed to me on a video call this morning that these are the same bullets used in the Pahalgam attack,” said Shah.