| How former Kashmir cop turned terrorist, made biggest decamp of weapons | | | New Delhi, June 20
As Jammu and Kashmir Police fights terrorism in the state, they are also fighting black sheep within their ranks. The latest in line of former policemen turning to terrorism is Adil Bashir Sheikh.
Adil Bashir Sheikh (25), from South Kashmir's Shopian, worked as SPO in Jammu and Kashmir Police.
He made headlines in a case of loot of weapons, including seven AK series assault rifles, from the residence of a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA of Wachi, Aijaz Ahmad Mir in Jammu and Kashmir.
INDIA TODAY TRACKED DOWN ADIL'S CHEQUERED PAST
Adil Bashir Sheikh got involved in cases of stonepelting and was subsequently chargesheeted in 2015.
He was engaged as a special police officer on March 8, 2017, at district police HQ in Shopian. After his engagement as SPO, he started working as a cook.
Later, Adil decamped with weapons of seven SPOs deployed with Aijaz Ahmad Mir simply on account of their own negligence.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its recently filed chargesheet has narrated the sequence of events.
The agency found out that on September 14, 2018, Aijaz Ahmad Mir went to Jammu via Srinagar airport. It is mentioned in chargesheet that all SPOs left for their respective homes without seeking permission from their senior officers.
Meanwhile, on September 27, 2018, when the ex-MLA planned to return, he telephonically asked for his residence to be cleaned. The charge of cleaning up house was given to SPO Adil Bashir.
This is when Adil along with two militants Yawar Ahmad Dar and Rafique Ahmad Bhat planned to steal the weapons.
Adil knew all about where weapons were kept, the duties and movement of the SPOs as well as of Aijaz Ahmad Mir.
He waited for the best opportunity to steal weapons. The opportunity for him to do so came in September, 2018.
Adil along with Yawar and Rafique went to government quarters in Jawahar Nagar by a car with the intention of executing their plan to steal weapons.
Adil had made duplicate keys of the trunk which contained the SPOs's weapons. The weapons were taken to Pulwama.
A month earlier, Adil and Rafique had gone to the an apple orchard in Pulwama's Sugan where he held a meeting with Hizbul Mujahideen operatives.
The operatives agreed to the plan and went to Srinagar to execute the theft.
Adil, Yawar, and Rafique went to J-11, Jawahar Nagar, parking their car by the side of the boundary wall of the residential quarter. Adil entered the house and brought out weapons and handed them over to the Hizbul Mujahideen operatives.
After they decamped with weapons, the three hid the weapons in a field in Hajidarpora situated in Achan, Pulwama.
While Bhat was arrested by the NIA last December from Pulwama, Yawar Ahmed Dar and another terror operative Abid Manzoor Magray were killed by security forces in separate encounters in Kashmir in May this year. NIA sleuths also found that Adil used two Facebook accounts in name of Adil Bashir Sheikh and Fidayeen Bhai.
The data retrieved from his Facebook accounts also contained photos of terrorists and Adil with weapons, videos of terrorists and other incriminating material. |
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