Three vehicles used for terror activities seized in J&K: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized three vehicles allegedly used for terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The vehicles were seized on February 15 under Section 25(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, as proceeds of terror in the case regarding recovery and seizure of arms and ammunition from now terminated Dy SP of Jammu and Kashmir Police Devender Singh, a spokesperson of the premier anti-terror probe agency said.

Singh was arrested by the J&K Police in January while he was travelling with militants of Hizbul Mujahideen in the southern Kulgam district. The disgraced officer had sheltered Naveed Babu, who deserted the police force in 2017, at his home, adjacent to the Indian Army’s strategic 15-Corps headquarters at Badamibagh, Srinagar.

Naveed, who was arrested with Singh, is accused of killing at least 11 migrant labourers after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. The case was later handed over to the NIA.

The vehicles, the NIA spokesperson said, were used by accused persons for the furtherance of terror activities in Kashmir valley. The case pertains to arrest of four accused persons, including two active terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen, who were going out of J&K in order to commit terrorist acts in a Hyundai i20 car along with now terminated Dy SP Singh.

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“Based on information, this car was intercepted at Al-Stop naka on Srinagar-Jammu Highway, near Mir Bazar Police Post in Kulgam on 11.01.2020. During the search, one AK-47 rifle, three pistols, one hand grenade, ammunition and other incriminating material were recovered and seized,” he said.

The NIA investigations have revealed that the Hyundai i20 owned and used by accused Irfan Shafi Mir, the Maruti 800 registered in the name of Mushtaq Ahmad Shah and used by his son accused Syed Naveed, and the Hyundai i20 Sportz registered to and used by Tanveer Ahmad Wani were allegedly used for terror activities in Kashmir.

Born and brought up in the volatile Tral area of south Kashmir, Singh was recruited as a sub-inspector in 1990 and initially posted at the Ram Munshi Bagh police station. Reportedly, an inquiry in 1993 had found him involved in a case of extortion, but his seniors dismissed the report.

In the mid-1990s, Singh was posted in Humhama in the newly constituted counter-insurgency force of the police, the SOG. In a letter written in 2013, Afzal Guru, who was executed after being convicted for the 2001 Parliament attack, explained how Singh, the then officer in SOG, had asked him to “take Mohammad”, a co-accused in the Parliament attack case, “to Delhi, rent a flat for his stay and purchase a car for him.”

Singh, already charge sheeted by the NIA for providing support to the Hizbul, was dismissed from the service in May 2021 under Article 311 of the Constitution.