Police releases father of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo after detaining him for 2 days

The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday released the father of a Hizbul Mujahideen commander whom they arrested two days ago. Assadullah Naikoo, 70, father of Hizbul operational commander Riyaz Naikoo, was arrested in Pulwama district on Wednesday night. In vengeance, on Friday, militants in south Kashmir abducted 11 relatives of policemen. [caption id=“attachment_5088801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “We had called him for questioning as he is closely associated with his son, who is an active militant. We have to keep a track of people known to militants but he has not been arrested,” the officer said, according to a report by The New Indian Express. In a statement released on social media on Friday, Riyaz said that the police had compelled the militants to act against families because the police had arrested a non-combatant relative of a militant. In the tweet, Riyaz commended his men for the kidnappings and threatened to avenge “an eye for eye”, NDTV reported. The fresh escalation between militants and Kashmir police began after four policemen were killed on Wednesday when they had gone to an automobile workshop near Arhama market in Shopian to repair their vehicle when militants fired at them. In a chain reaction, forces appeared at the house of militants in Amshepora village and tried to set ablaze the house of a local militant on Wednesday evening. The arrest of the son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin by NIA only vitiated the atmosphere further. With inputs from IANS