1 arrested in Basantgarh encounter case: SSP Udhampur

Jammu, May 11: Police Saturday stated to have made a significant breakthrough in the Basantgarh encounter case, with the arrest of a Kathua resident for providing logistic support to the terrorists.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Udhampur, Joginder Singh, while revealing this in a press conference, stated that the police received certain vital clues in the continuing investigation of the Basantgarh encounter case FIR No 09/2024 of Police Station Basantgarh U/S 302/307/121/121A/122/120B/IPC , 113/16/18/18A/19/ 21 UAPA,7/27 Arms Act.

One Village Defence Guard (VDG), Mohammad Sharif, resident of Lower Ponara Basantgarh, was killed during exchange of firing between police personnel and terrorists, hiding in Chochru Gala heights in Basantgarh area of (Udhampur) district on April 28.

“On the basis of inputs received from several quarters, including agencies, public and media, police have also made sketches of six terrorists to share in public domain so that we are able to generate some specific information about them (terrorists) and subsequently neutralise them,” he said.

“For several years now, this area has been peaceful, witnessing no presence of terrorists. But the adversary is hell-bent to disturb this peaceful area yet again. However, with the support of people here, security set-up is determined to bring back peace to this area again. In this connection, we investigated many persons and gained some credible information about the movement of suspects. On the basis of which, we zeroed in on a few unscrupulous elements that had marked proclivities towards the acts of crime,” SSP said.

He stated that during interrogation, police achieved a breakthrough and arrested an individual identified as Javed, son of Mohd Hussain, resident of Loha Nathi, Kathua, who had evidence stacked against him for providing logistic support to the terrorists. “This is the first arrest made by police in this case so far. Further investigation into the case is going on. We are sharing sketches and all details of six terrorists with you (media). Out of them, two seemed to be identical. On the basis of their description, it seems that they may be siblings,” SSP Udhampur said.

Appealing to the public to extend cooperation to police by providing information about them, he said that the Police department would reward Rs 5-10 lakh per suspect for any information, leading to their (terrorists’) neutralisation.

In response to a related query, SSP said, “So far, there is no credible input or evidence to show that these are local terrorists.”

He, however, refused to share operational details vis-a-vis investigation, search operation post encounter. “Police, army, para-military forces – all security agencies with the cooperation of people are engaged in this operation. Operation is underway. Preparations for it (operation) are made as per set parameters but operational details cannot be shared. As and when some significant breakthrough is achieved, it will be shared with the media,” he said.

With regard to the number of terrorists present in the area, SSP said that there could be 12-15 terrorists there