MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police on Friday claimed to have arrested three suspected agents of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), who were allegedly involved in anti-state activity, including a bomb attack in front of a police station.

The masked suspects were brought to a media briefing by senior police officials in Rawalakot, the headquarters of Poonch division, and were identified as Mohammad Khalil, Imtiaz and Rashid, all residents of Taroti village in Abbaspur. The first two are in their mid-thirties and the third is in his mid-twenties, police officials said.

According to DSP Sajid Imran, Khalil was the main suspect. He had visited India-held Kashmir in November 2014 to see his relatives in Bandi Chechian village.

That is where he came in contact with RAW officials who lured him to work for them in Azad Kashmir, DSP Imran said.

Khalil had undertaken the journey via Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing point in Poonch division after obtaining an intra-Kashmir travel permit. Upon returning home, he approached Imtiaz and Rashid and promised them “handsome returns” for working with him.

They are suspected of being involved in engineering a bomb attack in front of a police station

He said during the preliminary investigations, Khalil disclosed that he had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) 14 or 15 times, from different parts of the Abbaspur sector, over the last two years. His accomplices confessed to crossing the unmarked dividing line five to six times.

“Khalil would take with him cigarettes and (mobile phone) memory cards, carrying pictures of bridges, mosques manned by the Deobandi school of thought, and army and police manned installations,” DSP Imran said, adding that, he had also given at least two active SIM cards, registered in his name, to Indian officials. From India-held Kashmir, he would bring money as well as Indian liquor, which he would later sell to people here.

The DSP recalled a bomb blast outside a police station in the town of Abbaspur on Sept 27 last year, and said the IED (improvised explosive device) used in the attack had been planted by the trio. They had brought the device from across the LoC, he added.

The DSP said last year, RAW tasked Khalil with carrying out a bomb blast at a law enforcement agency installation, for which he was offered Rs500,000 after the completion of the task. Khalil had pledged Rs150,000 and Rs50,000 to Imtiaz and Rashid, respectively, from that amount.

“They chose a police station as a soft target, but even though the building was damaged, there were no casualties,” he added.

However, when Indian officials sought newspapers as proof of their action, before giving him the pledged amount, Khalil failed to find any newspaper that carried news of the attack, the DSP said.

So Khalil found a deserted army bunker and asked Imtiaz and Rashid to put on army jackets stained with red paint, and lie down on the floor pretending to be dead. He took their pictures and sent them to Indian officials on Sept 30, but the Indians refused to accept the pictures as proof and continued to demand evidence published in the media.

Suspicions of police were raised recently after someone told them he had spotted them in Abbaspur on the night of Sept 26 with a shopping bag in hand.

“We tracked down their movements and phone calls, with help from intelligence agencies, and finally got a hold of them from two different places two days ago,” he said.

The suspects have been booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Explosives Act, he said, adding: “Given the nature of their cases, they would be produced before an anti-terrorism court for physical remand.”

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017