UP man held for association with Pakistan-based LeT

A man from Uttar Pradesh has been arrested for working with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and actively participating in terror activities in Kashmir, including the recent killing of six cops, the police said on Monday, making a startling revelation.

Sandeep Kumar Sharma alias Adil, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, was a part of LeT module busted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, a top police official said.

A local militant Muneeb Shah, resident of Kulgam in Kashmir, was also arrested.

According to Khan, it was the first case of a non-local being found associated with LeT.

"We have busted a module involved in a series of sensational crimes, including terror crimes, in south Kashmir. Two individuals, Sandeep Kumar Sharma alias Adil, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, and Muneeb Shah, a resident of Kulgam in south Kashmir, have been arrested," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Munir Khan told reporters.

Sandeep, an expert in looting, was involved in criminal and militant activities and became a "hardcore terrorist in the sense that he accompanied LeT terrorists in three actions", he said.

The arrest of Sandeep, basically a welder, points to the blurring lines between criminality and terrorism, Khan said.

The IGP revealed that Sandeep was nabbed from the house where LeT commander Bashir Lashkari was killed in an encounter on July 1. His arrest led to Shah being caught.

"We apprehended Sandeep during the encounter in which notorious militant Lashkari was eliminated. It raised the fingers of suspicion. We were surprised to see a non-local sitting in the same house where Lashkari was taking shelter, so we decided to go further," the police officer said.

Giving details, Khan said Sandeep was involved in an attack on a police party in Achabal in south Kashmir on June 16 in which SHO Feroze Dar and five other policemen were killed and their faces disfigured.

Sandeep was also involved in the June 3 ambush on an army convoy in lower Munda in which a jawan was killed and also in the snatching of weapons from retired Justice Muzaffar Attar's guard in Anantnag, the IGP said.

"In all these actions, Sandeep was present and participating," Khan said.